Perfect Wife
by Mini Reyes
Summary: Eight crime scences, eight missing women, three agents, one phsycopath. A lack of evidence, dead ends, & no connections, seemingly random events with Agent Reyes caught in the very dangerous web of confusion and mystery, can she escape with her life?
1. Waking Up

Disclaimer: I do not own the X Files, the agents, the FBI, yadda yadda yadda, making no money from this, blah blah blah... okay I wrote this for fun-don't sue!

Authors Note: No idea how I came up with this one... I think it has something to do with watching Paranormal Activity and eating chocolate the minute before I went to sleep... that does weird things with my head...anyway... moving on... chapters will be short to build suspense and drama, which yes, includes cliffhangers and sudden endings - don't shoot! ;)

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><p><em>Unknown Location<em>

Monica Reyes' mind started waking up and various things came to her attention, she felt cramped and uncomfortable, positioned in a weird way, her arms behind her. Tied behind her. She opened her eyes but met darkness; stretching her legs she encountered resistance in the form of a metal wall. Sighing in frustration, the agent tuned into her surrounding sounds, and finally picked up on the vibrations of the floor, the sound of tires spinning impossibly fast over ash fault, the sounds of passing cars and the distinct hum of an engine, from which she deducted unhappily that she was stuck in the trunk of a car.

_Great…Just great…_She thought as she tried to get her eyes to adjust the extreme lack of light.

XxXxX _- Basement Office_

John walked down the hall of the FBI building unaware of his partners current situation. Walking into the office he was surprised to see both Agents Mulder and Scully talking – although to one who didn't know them, it would seem like arguing- about what he did not know, but he knew something wasn't quite right when he walked into the office and found his two friends, but not his partner.

"Morning Agents," John said, looking around and noticing that were missing an agent, "Where's Agent Reyes?"

"That information is unclear," Skinner said, appearing behind Doggett, "According to Agent Mulder here, her aunt died... again... and if you ask Agent Scully, she'll tell you that she's 'sick', so Agent Doggett, as you can see, the true whereabouts of Agent Reyes are unknown to me, perhaps you can shed some light on the current location of the Agent in questions whereabouts seeing as your colleagues are too busy covering for each other?"

"Sir, I don't know where Agent Reyes is, I haven't seen or heard from her since last night, I'm trying to find her myself, she's not answering her mobile or home phone," John said.

"Well start looking," Skinner said and then turned around and left the agents to wonder exactly what their superior officer knew and what had happened to their MIA agent.

XxXxX -_ Unknown Location_

Monica tried to focus on any other sounds that would giver her a clue as to her location, but she couldn't concentrate hard enough, everything in her mind was fuzzy, her arms were numb, and her head hurt, so she closed her eyes and unknowingly slipped into unconsciousness.

Monica's eyes snapped open again but she wasn't sure what she had heard. Focusing as much of her foggy brain as she could on listening out for sounds, she heard foot steps traveling away from her. Monica found that her head didn't hurt anymore but the right side of her body, and both her arms were very numb from lying in the one spot for god knows how long.

She heard sounds of a door opening and footsteps coming towards her, crunching over gravel, and she suddenly wasn't sure if she should try and fight her unknown attacker or feign unconsciousness. As the crunch of feet over gravel came closer she decided with the latter, having no idea of her captors' strengths, and knowing that she couldn't move half of her body.

The scratching sound of a key in an old lock sounded as the footsteps stopped and Monica quickly closed her eyes as she heard the squeak of hinges when the lid to her confined space was opened, bringing with it a rush of cool, fresh air.

XxXxX _- Skinner's Office_

The three agents stood in front of Skinner as they reported there findings- or lack there of, as it seemed.

"We called her cell and home phone a dozen times to no answer, a bolo was put out on her car but came back that it was at her apartment-" Agent Doggett started.

"Did you go to her apartment?" Skinner interrupted.

"Yes," Scully jumped in, "There was nothing unusual. We interviewed her neighbors but they didn't hear her come home, but they said and I quote 'That was not unusual since some nights it seemed she didn't come home at all, while other wise she was usually very quiet'" Scully recounted.

"So basically you have nothing," Skinner said and the agents stood in silence while Skinner thought, "Go back to the apartment," He said, and then put his glasses back on and refocused his attention on a folder on his desk as the agents walked out of the office.

XxXxX - _Outside Monica Reyes' apartment building_

"What are we doing here?" Mulder asked as he looked around the street.

"Looking around," Scully answered, looking at the pavement.

"For what?" Mulder asked, observing people as they jay walked across the street.

"Evidence," John replied, looking through the window of Monica's car, he spotted her badge, gun and more importantly, her phone, all resting on the center console, so he tried opening the door and was surprised when it popped open.

The three agents all looked at each other for moment, and then at Doggett as he opened the door fully and kneeling down on the curb, he put gloves on so as not to contaminate the crime scene, and then pulling out his torch he swept the beam of light over the interior of the car before reaching over and picking up Monica's phone, he brought it out of the car and turned it on, the phone rang continuously for a while as all the missed phone calls and text messages came in.

Each of the three agents had seen what was in the car, and each silently admitted that their agent was officially missing.

The phone in Doggett's hand rang again with a new incoming call and he looked down at the device, and then answered the phone.

"Agent Reyes?" Skinner asked.

"Guess again, it's Agent Doggett," He corrected

"Have you found anything other than our Agents phone?"

"Yes sir, her badge and gun, but no sign other sign of her," Doggett replied.

"Well keep looking," Skinner said and hung up.

"Think we can get prints off it?" Mulder asked.

"Let's hope so," John said, and Scully got out an evidence bag and Doggett put the phone inside it, and Scully sealed it and wrote down the pertinent information, before putting it away.


	2. Strage Places

Monica heard a scoff, "Huh, still out of it, good," A male voice said and then rough hands pulled her out of the car and carried her inside. She heard the difference in his steps over the gravel, concrete, and then carpet. The man lowered Monica onto something much more comfortable then the car she was just in, and if she had to guess, she would have guessed it was a bed, and she would have been right. Even though all she had done all day was lie in car, she suddenly felt extremely tired, and quickly let sleep overtake her.

XxXxX

The drive back to the Hoover building was silent as Scully drove (for a change) and Mulder and John thought about the few things they knew. So far nothing was making any sense, but then again, neither does any case, that is why they get investigated.

John hopped that the phone would hold the key to breaking the case, and would contain fingerprints or DNA of who ever took Monica, while Mulder was thinking that there wouldn't be prints, and it was another case of alien abduction and that hopefully this would make the male agent in the backseat believe in the paranormal, while Scully was focusing on the road.

XxXxX

Monica became dimly aware of some one touching her hair as the few events of the day before came into her mind, and she realised that her hands were no longer bound as she opened her eyes and finally got to see her captor; an attractive man that looked to be in his early to mid thirties, he was well built and muscular, clean shaven, short black hair, green eyes, and no visible tattoos, scaring or other identifying marks. But most importantly to Monica, he was stroking her hair, but she decided play it by ear and see what was going on before acting.

The man watched Monica in fascination as she critically studied him for a few moments and then her eyes explored the average room that she found herself lying in.

He smiled down at her, "Most of them ask who I am, where they are, what I want with them, some ask if I will hurt them, some plead and beg for me to let them go, but you, you intrigue me, you just quietly lie there and look around you, trying to make sense of it all."

"Well if you know everything that I'm going to say then why not save me the trouble of asking and just tell me?" Monica asked boldly, fighting the small band of fear and anxiety back and trying to gain some control over the situation.

He smiled again broadly, still playing with her hair, "Where are you? That doesn't matter, you won't be leaving. Can you leave? No. Will I hurt you? Only if you disobey me. Who am I?" He smirked, "I'm…" He paused for effect, his smile gleaming evilly in his eyes, and he smiled widely.


	3. Gathering Information

"I'm your future husband," He said.

Monica was shocked and then confused, but not liking the situation even more with every passing minute, her mind had been going crazy with various different theories and scenarios, one being that the man in front of her was on drugs.

"What did you inject me with?" She asked, playing on a hunch.

"Ahh, now that's an interesting first question, 'what did I inject you with'? I injected you with a serum that induces a paralysis like state… just until I know I can trust you not to run off, after all, it's a bit early on in our relationship to be thinking about chains and hand cuffs," He teased, making Monica feel really uncomfortable and out of control with the situation. She wanted to move away from him, but thought that mayeb she should keep her options open and not tell him that he need to learn what the measuring marks mean.

"Was it that you want me to do exactly?" Monica asked, fearing the possible outcome.

"You will be my wife, and you will be the _perfect _wife, or, if you disobey or anger me, you will suffer the _severe _consequences."

Monica was feeling worse with the situation with every passing word. A bad feeling had developed in her stomach and was not budging, but she figured that she should go a long with it for now, at least until she could find a way out of it all. There were so many questions, things she didn't understand. Why her? Why now? What was so special about her? What made this man act and behave this way? How many others had he done this to? How many more did he want to do this to? What was this 'perfect wife' idea about? She needed more clarity on the problem at hand.

"What's your name?" Monica asked.

"And finally she asks the question! Joshua Reed," He said.

"Okay, Joshua Reed, next question; what are the 'rules'?" She asked.

"You do as I say, if I tell you to do something, you do it, I tell you not to do not something, you don't it, simple enough? Good, moving on, you are to keep the house clean and do everything you can to please me, if you succeed your life will be fine, if you fail, I will make you wish you were dead," Joshua threatened and then got up to leave but turned around, "The paralysis will wear off by tomorrow, at which time I will show you how things work," He said and then leaned down, panic running through Monica as he kissed her and she kept up the pretence that she under the drugs power in hopes that there might be a chance for her to escape, he got up and left the room, locking the door behind him.

_Huh, guess he doesn't know much about chemistry that thing wore off hours ago while I still stuck in the trunk! _Monica thought as she quickly looked around the room for hidden microphones or cameras or bugs, but seeing none, she sat up and stretched her sore muscles, rolling her shoulders, it was good to be able to feel her arms again. She stood up and paced around the small room. Testing the lone door and singular window, but both were securely locked, and the window had a magnet alarm that would sound if opened.

Monica looked around the room for something she could use as means of communication or escape but all that was in the room was the bed covered in a blue sheet, a pillow and a blanket. The floor was carpeted, the walls and roof were painted white; there was nothing in the room for her to use.

Monica sighed and sat on the bed, her eyes looking over every inch of the wall, she got up and reached out for the wall, and ran her hands over its surface, just to be sure that there weren't any hidden doors or secret passages. She checked each wall and under the bed, but if there was a door, she wasn't finding it.

Monica lay back on the bed, her hands behind her head and the situation she faced came upon her, along with the fear and anxiety. Recalling a fact that her old professor had told her, 'kidnapped victims usually last five or six minutes before desperation really sets in and the victim begins to beg'_ five or six minutes? _She thought, _It's been a few hours at least! _Monica thought but she could feel the desperation and anxiety rising within her.

_Is he really going to keep me here for the rest of my life? I didn't plan on spending the rest of my life with a stranger, locked away in some house in god-knows where… I hope John finds me, I don't like this, Joshua said 'Most of them' implying that there are others, or were others, at least, before me… I hope he doesn't anger easily or else I'm going to be in deep trouble soon, because I think I'm going to really push his buttons… _Monica thought as she planned how best to test Joshua's anger and how to get out, or how to get in touch with John, maybe even call him.

XxXxX

John paced the science lab room, awaiting the results from Agent Pendrel on the finger prints found on Monica's phone. Finally Pendrel called out to him, "Agent Doggett I have the results!" He called and John came up behind the lab technician and looked over his shoulder at the computer monitor.

"The finger prints belong to a man named Joshua Reed, I got a red flag from LEO's when I searched his name, he is suspected in a number of abductions of women," Pendrel explained.

"Why hasn't he been arrested?" John asked.

"No one can find him, he has three known alias, possibly more."

"How many women?"

"Pardon?"

"How many women has Reed been suspected in abducting?"

"Oh, well his finger prints have been found at…" Pendrel trailed off to search his screen for a moment, "Seven other crime scenes,"

John breathed harshly and looked down at the floor for a moment and then looked up, "What was their fate?"

"Their fate? All seven-err, eight, are still currently missing, no one has seen or heard from any of the missing women since their abductions,"

"When did the first woman disappear?"

"Ah…" Pendrel checked his computer again, "Eight months ago, she was taken at night while walking through a park."

"What does she look like?"

Pendrel raised an eyebrow and then answered, "Long and straight ash-blonde hair, tall, lean, vibrant green eyes, she wears a silver pendant necklace."

John nodded, "He doesn't seem to have a consistent MO… blonde and brunette?"

"And black and red too, but there is one common theme, that they were all abducted at night in the DC area, within about 40 blocks from each other at the most, and phones, wallets, etc are all left behind at the crime scene."

John thought for a moment, "What dates where they taken?"

"Dates? Oh, um, the 14th, 17th, 23rd, 2nd-"

"Okay, so no consistent dates either. This guy doesn't make any sense, nothing is the same, and it's all completely random."

"Well, there has to be something, do want me to print this all out for you?"

"Yeah, thanks Pendrel, that'd be great," John said, heading over to the small printer and waited as pages of information were printed.


	4. Challenges and Fights

Monica was sitting on the bed with her arms around her legs when she heard foot steps coming towards her door. She let go of her legs, quickly throwing them off the bed she stood up as the door opened and Joshua walked in.

"Hey Baby," He said and then stopped, realising that she was standing, "I see the paralysis wore off," He smiled in an unnerving way, "Good! Paranormal Activity 3 is on tonight, and it is Halloween you know?" Joshua smirked and then began to advance on her, and Monica instantly started moving backwards, "Thought maybe you'd like something to eat and I could start preparing you for tomorrow," He said and had Monica backed into the corner of the room.

Joshua reached out to take hold of Monica, but she pushed his hands away and he became more forceful, trying to take a hold of her forearms, but she struggled and tried to move away from him.

"No!" She cried and then Joshua hit her across the cheek and she was stunned long enough for him to grab her arms and push her towards the door, holding her tightly, she didn't resist as he dragged her down the corridor, which opened up to a lounge room and kitchen.

Joshua pushed her towards the couch and let her arm go. She took the hint to sit down and he sat down beside her.

"So Baby, help your self to some pizza while we watch, and feel free to cling to me when you get scared," Joshua said and winked, making Monica want to roll her eyes at his arrogance and smart ass comments, movies had never scared her before, why should now be any different?

During the movie Joshua had noticed that Monica gave no reaction to the horror scenes that played out before her eyes. This fact annoyed him very much, he liked it when the movie got into there heads and started playing tricks on them later on, he liked when they got scared and he didn't have to do anything, and he didn't like it that Monica wasn't scared.

Joshua pulled Monica to him, his arm around her shoulders, making her rather uncomfortable with his closeness to her. She attempted to wriggle away from him, but he sensed her movement and pulled her back, holding her even tighter.

"Scary isn't it?" He whispered in her ear, and Monica felt like shivering, thought not from the movie. He was definitely scarier than that movie ever would be.

When she didn't reply Joshua started to get really annoyed and so he dragged her into his lap and held her around her waist tightly and in an almost threatening way, "What, this movie doesn't scare you?" He teased, his mouth close to her ear and she could hear his breath and feel it too, his warm breath chilling her neck, "Do I scare you?" He asked and leaned back a bit, but Monica started straight ahead at the TV until she felt his hand on the front of her shirt, and she reflexively smacked his hand away from her, the action completely by passing her brain and any train of thought on the consequences. She threw him a death glare, or at least she hopped that's what is looked like, she stuck between submission and aggression, switching between the two rapidly.

"Touch me again and you'll be sorry," She warned.

"Oooh, you _are _a feisty one," He teased, but then held her fore arms tightly again as his face hardened, his small amount of patience, wearing very thin, "Listen Baby, you're in no place to be making threats, you _should_ be scared, there are so many things I could do to you, things that I would like to do to you, things that would change you and haunt you forever… you don't scare me, you _can't _scare me, so don't try to intimidate me, because it wont work,"

Monica turned her head and looked him right in the eye, "Such big talk-" She stopped when she saw the look of pure rage on Joshua's face, and then she knew she had pushed it too far.

"Don't challenge me!" Joshua interrupted as Monica realised she was about to be in a lot of trouble.

Joshua's anger ragged through him and he stood up, pushing Monica to the ground between the couch and the small coffee table, he quickly straddled her before she had a chance to attempt getting up, Monica started fearing the worst, knowing that she was unlikely to be able to throw him off.

Joshua tried to pin her arms down but Monica fought back, not keeping still as he tried to grab her arms, she pushed against him and tried to get out from under him, but his weight was keeping her pinned down to the ground, and she knew it was a matter of time before he had her completely unable to move and pinned to the ground, but she fought back as hard as she could.

"No!" She cried out.

But Joshua had the upper hand, one he was male, which made him naturally stronger than she was and he was quiet muscular and well built, doubling the strength advantage, and two, he was on top. Though despite the odds, Monica still managed to punch him in the jaw before he caught her arm and held it above her head, then gaining control of her other arm as she had attempted to pry his hand off her, he had her completely pinned.

Monica breathed heavily, still fearing the worst, her mind coming up with all the different possible ways he might hurt her, emotional, physical, mental- rape, murder, torture, isolation, and starvation, stuck out in her mind.

Joshua leaned over her, his mouth oh so close to hers, he gave her a cocky smile, expecting her to stand down, "Now what is that you were saying?"

But Monica was not ready to submit to him just yet, she knew that she had pushed him almost completely off the edge, but now Monica was pissed as well, "Such big talk," She repeated slowly and Joshua's smile faded, "You can't touch me," Monica said, suddenly gaining a false sense of control, she smirked until she saw the destructive rage, verging on madness, boil into his eyes and she didn't even have time to stop smiling before he savagely backhanded her so hard that her bottom lip split and her cheek stung, effectively wiping the smirk off her face for good in the process.

Monica licked some of the blood form her lip as Joshua laughed down at her harshly, "Is that all you've got?" He sneered down on her and then savagely pulled her off the ground, holding onto the front of her shirt, and then pulling her arms behind her back so she couldn't fight back, he cruelly dragged her down the corridor, and then kicked open a door and shoved Monica into the room, putting his foot in front of hers, and tripping her so she fell.

Joshua locked the door quickly and then returned his attention to Monica, who attempted to get up until he viciously kicked her in the stomach, which would later bruise, but knocked her back to the ground again, also taking the breath out of her. He laughed at her again, quickly striding to kneel behind her as she tried to catch her breath, he pulled on her hair, dragging her into up into a semi sitting up position and then he pulled her right arm behind her so violently that he just about dislocated her shoulder as Monica screamed out in pain.

"This is what you get for challenging my authority over you, and stepping out of line," He spat harshly into her ear, the explosive rage being conveyed clearly in his voice and very loudly in his unmerciful actions, and Monica changed from her pushing attitude to suddenly just trying to stay alive.

Joshua let go of her hair and grabbed the back of her shirt, pulling her to her feet, Monica tried to keep up with him as he hurriedly started walking, half dragging the stumbling Monica in front of him and she had no idea where they were going until her head smashed into the wall so hard that her head bounced off it and she fell back onto the ground, as he let her go, crying out in pain again.

Joshua snickered as he climbed on top of her again and leaned so close that Monica thought he was going to kiss her again, but was relieved when he spoke instead, his explosive rage having been reined in enough for him to have more control over the situation, "The others that have come into this room have never gone out the same," He said and then kissed her, sucking the blood off her lower lip. Monica thrashed against him violently, trying to throw him off her, her hands on his shoulders, trying to push him away when he suddenly got off her, but then took hold of Monica's arm and pulled her to her feet, not caring about the unrelenting force he was using against her.

Joshua pushed her against the brick wall, one hand holding her arm behind her back, the other holding head against the wall, his knee between her legs, and he put his mouth near her neck and ear, "Do not enrage me further," He warned, and he could hear that she was still out of breath. He spun her around and forced him self on her, kissing her again as a test to see if she would still fight back, but the adrenalin pumping through her veins caused her second reflex action of the night as she kneed him between the legs.

Unfortunately for Monica, Joshua was able to overcome the pain, but only because of the extremely violent rage he was thrown into and he hit her again, re splitting her lip and then punching her in the stomach as hard as he could in the same spot he had kicked her, then pulled her off the wall, turning her around harshly and with such an immensely cruel force he savagely smashed her head into the hard wall again with such a destructive force that Monica fell to the ground unconscious, thick red blood trailing down her temple from the open wound just above her eyebrow, that would require stitches, but Joshua just laughed an evily wicked laugh as he stood over the unconscious brunette.


	5. Water Torture

Joshua picked up the unconscious brunette easily and carried her to the concrete table where he lay her down and then stood at her feet and closed the metal shackles around both of her ankles, locking them in place as he heard her groan softly and start to come to.

Monica felt the cold concrete beneath her and a weight across her stomach as the cold metal shackle wound around her left wrist. She struggled against Joshua as he tried to tie her other wrist, Monica attempted to punch him, but he caught her wrist and easily held her down long enough to succeed in locking her wrist in place above her head. She looked up at the metal bonds and pulled on them as hard as she could, fear growing within her soul, while Joshua sat on her stomach and watched her with fascination as a smile grew on his face as he watched her struggle against the restraints to no avail.

Exhausted and in a massive amount of pain, Monica gave up the struggle after a few minutes and looked up at her captor finding him sneering down at her happily, "What are gonna do to me?" Monica asked, breathless, the fear betraying her in her voice and eyes.

Joshua leaned over her yet again, his hands resting on the concrete on either side of her head, "What ever I want to," He said, his eyes flicking over her body, he sneered again and knot of fear formed in Monica's stomach as he trailed two fingers from her neck, down the row of buttons on the front of her shirt. She shivered and pulled on shackles again till his fingers left body, but her mind was still worrying about what was to come, and what he was insinuating.

Joshua leaned back and watched her for a second, getting a thrill out of the fear he now saw on Monica's face and then he climbed off her, walking around behind her. Monica followed him with her eyes as he stopped directly behind her, and she now noticed the tap above her head.

"W-what are you doing?" Monica asked nervously.

He smirked down at her, and turned the tap on, Monica's eyes widened as she watched the water collect and then fall, the stream line drop splashing onto her forehead and Monica flinched violently in response, jerking on the metal restraints that kept her bound to the table. Joshua laughed at her, his laugh bouncing off the brick walls, but stopped when he realised that he was not the only one laughing. He looked down upon Monica, she shook with confused laughter.

"Why are you laughing?" He demanded, suddenly feeling annoyed that she no longer seemed scared.

"Water," She laughed, "You're trying to torture me with water?"

"You laugh now, but you will see first hand the power that water holds," Joshua said and moved to stand beside her as the water dripped on her every two seconds. He watched her for a few moments as she flinched when the water fell on her and then headed towards the door.

"Wait! How long are you going to leave me here for?" Monica cried out, but Joshua kept walking, unlocking the door and then half turning to smirk at her before walking out of the room and closing but not locking the door behind him because he knew that she couldn't escape.

Monica thrashed wildly and pulled ferociously at her restraints, desperation setting in as well as anxiety and panic. Her head started throbbing quite painfully from where her head had made contact with the wall, her palms stung from where they had been grazed when Joshua had tripped her, and her cheek stung from being struck so violently and from when he had pushed her against the wall.

The constant dripping was quickly becoming annoying, and the otherwise deafening silence was broken only by the sound of water hitting Monica's head, it set on her edge, but she gave up the struggle for now and concluded that she couldn't escape.

The stinging in her palms and cheek subsided but the throbbing in her head intensified with the torturously unrelenting dripping of water on her head. She no longer flinched when the water hit her, but rather, found it to be extremely annoying as the water would run down into her eyes or down her neck, or into her hair.

But the most annoying part was that she couldn't tune out to it all and just pretend that is wasn't happening, because two seconds into trying to forget, a well placed drop of H2O would splash her back to the horrifyingly bleak reality that she was faced with. The onslaught of water also meant that she couldn't sleep. But there was a sad irony in being tortured by the substance that made up just over sixty percent of her body, and provided life to every living thing on the planet.


	6. Fear Isolation & Background Information

XxXxX – _Chapter 6 - Fear Isolation and Background Information_

Scully started silently at the files on her desk as she had been for the last few hours, when her eyes lit up, "I found it!" She cried out so suddenly that the two men just about went through to the first floor.

"What did you find?" John asked as he came up beside her, as did Mulder.

"A small consistency between all the abducted women," Scully said looking at them both, "They're all about 185 cm tall,"

"That's it?" Mulder asked, and Scully looked back at him, "So we got nothing," Mulder finished.

"What do you mean 'that's it?' I found a connection, and we have seven missing women, and missing agent and friend!"

"So we have less than nothing?" Mulder teased.

Scully gave him a look that told him that she was about to go all 'sciencey' on him, "Mulder," Her tone of voice when she said his name gave it away, "It's not possible to have less than nothing, the scope of science doesn't allow for it, because less than nothing is not quantifiable, either something is there or it isn't," Scully and she could see the smile on his face, she knew he was just toying with her, but she couldn't help but take the bait that he had set.

"I think that we need to go and talk to the investigating officers that are working this case," John interrupted, and Mulder and Scully nodded.

XxXxX _Local PD sation_

The three agents stood around the table in the conference room, when a young dark-haired female officer walked into the room, along with a tall green eyed, blond haired officer.

"Officers Wolfe and Kane?" Mulder asked.

"Officer Kane," The woman said, extending her hand for Mulder to shake.

"Special Agent Fox Mulder," He said, accepting her hand.

"Agent Dana Scully," Scully said, greeting the young officer.

"Agent John Doggett," John said, also shaking the woman's hand.

"Officer Wolfe," The male officer said, shaking each of the agents' hands, "Nice to meet you all," He said.

"If only it were on better circumstances," John replied.

"Ah well, when are they ever in our lines of work?" Kane said, and they all fell silent for a moment.

"Well, let's not waste anymore time, God knows how much the latest victim has left to live," Wolfe said and gestured to the table, and they all sat down, though Doggett was more than a little annoyed that the officer had referred to Monica as 'the latest victim'. Did he have no respect for other agents?

The officers started pulling out case files from a box and re arranging them as they spoke.

"We looked at the first victims file but what did the family have to say?" Mulder asked.

"We spoke to the fiancée and he said that on the night Jane Jones aka J.J disappeared. He said they'd had a fight and she left the apartment, but when she didn't return he believed that she had gone to her mothers or a friends house, but after calling every one they knew and no one had heard from her, he called the police and filed a missing persons report," Wolfe explained, laying out crime scene photos.

"That when we got the case," Kane jumped in, "We looked at security camera footage from the lobby and nearby buildings to track where Jones went, that was until she went into a park. Upon search of the area we found her phone," Kane said pulling out a phone in an evidence bag and a few pages of lab reports.

"The lab ran the phone for prints and they found three separate prints, each matching the victims, Jane Jones, the fiancées, Jack Hughes, and our suspects Joshua Reed. When we spoke to the fiancée again he said that he didn't know anyone by that name. We ran him through our data base but didn't come up with much since he has no priors and dropped the radar two years ago," Wolf said, laying out a file on Joshua Reed.

"We got a birth certificate, where he went to school, high school, a death certificate for his mother-" Kane started.

"When and how did his mother die?" Mulder asked.

"Two years ago, she drowned in her own home," Wolfe said before Kane could speak.

"Aside from that," Kane continued, "We have only found old bank accounts and credit cards that are no longer in use, and Reed sold his car two years ago when his mother died; to help with funeral expenses it seems."

"And that's when he disappeared?" Scully asked.

"That's correct," Kane answered.

"Naturally, we believe that the death of his mother is attributed to the abductions, we're not sure how," Wolfe added.

"He has an expired drivers licence from two year ago with an old address on it, but he moved away around the time of his mothers death, and we have no current address, drivers licence, or registered car but we believe that he has stolen a van or car to aid him in the abductions," Kane said.

"What about a phone?" Doggett asked, speaking for the first time since the introductions.

"He does not appear to have one, nor does it appear that he has a job," Kane answered.

John nodded, "Okay I think we have enough on Reed, let's talk about the other seven victims."

"You read the first victims file, Jane Jones, anything else you want to know?" Kane asked.

"No lets just move onto the second victim," Wolfe interjected, "Karen Steatler, 32 years old born and raised in DC, full time job, never late for work, pays her bills on time no priors or convictions, she's like a bloody saint she doesn't even have so much as a speeding ticket!" Wolfe very badly joked.

"Eric!" Kane scolded, but Wolfe just gave her a glance and then continued.

"Nothing outstanding other than her grades until now,"

"When was she taken?" Scully asked.

"She was doing some late night shopping by her self when she was taken, nobody saw it and unfortunately there were no security cameras around to capture the abduction. But we have figured out that Reed made his move when Steatler was at her car. He left the things she had bought. Her purse and phone and keys all in her unlocked car and has continued with this theme through all sev- eight abductions," Kane corrected herself and Wolfe laid out files and evidence from the scene out on the table.

"It's almost as if he doesn't want to steal," Mulder commented more to himself then anybody else but they all heard him, "Its like he doesn't want to be a thief but doesn't realise that by abducting these women that he is stealing," Mulder continued, not realising he was speaking aloud until he snapped out of his thoughts and found everyone staring at him, "You can add that to his profile if you like," Mulder said to cover his tracks.

"Ah well, we don't have a profile on Reed per se," Kane said.

"I didn't realise you were a profiler Agent Mulder," Wolfe said.

Mulder wasn't too sure how to answer, "I have developed a small profile based on the information you have provided,"

"Oh, care to share?" Wolfe said, sounding a bit jealous.

"Not right now, it's not complete. I want to learn more about Reed before I build a full profile," Mulder said.

"Okay then, well moving on, we took a look at the evidence and matched the prints to the first crime scene and matched them to Reed," Kane carried on and pulled out a few more lab results, "But at this point were running out of leads very quickly,"

"We went to talk to the victim's parents who weren't very helpful at all, just a very elderly couple living in a nursing home. It was a waste of time really," Wolfe rudely interrupted.

"Eric!" Kane scolded again.

"Ah give it a rest Ashley, telling us that when she was five she fell off her horse doesn't help us!"

"Eric! It was procedure to talk to the parents- you know that!" Kane yelled back, and Wolfe looked like he about to rebut.

"Officers!" Scully loudly interrupted, "Lets back on topic please, we have an agent missing and we would like to find her before she dies,"

"Victim number three; Valarie Maxx, 33, long wavy black hair, works in a florist, punctual and shows up to work on time, hardly takes a day off," Kane read from her notes, "Maxx was walking home after a few drinks at the bar, how ever she doesn't not appear to have been drunk when she left. As far as we can figure she was taken at any point along her way home."

"So you don't have a crime scene?" Mulder asked.

"Correct," Kane answered, "Although we found her car and inside was her phone and purse so we think that's where she was taken but we're not a hundred percent sure, we didn't find his prints on the vehicle,"

"Unfortunately for us there were cameras in the parking lot," Wolfe added.

"Although victim four produced an interesting result, we got footage of Reed abducting Sarah Mackenzie. From there we were able to figure out that he uses a chemical to knock his victims out before taking them to where ever he's hiding out,"

"We found the usual stuff in the woman's car, which was becoming a recurring theme. Talking to the family, processing the scene and evidence didn't produce any new leads or results. So we went back over all the evidence from the other crime scenes, and our notes from which we noticed that there might have been a developing pattern; he abducted a blonde, a read head, raven haired, and a brunette, in that order. Then Kensi Osborne proved us right, Ms. Osborne was abducted while checking her PO Box late evening on July 7th, her phone and keys were left in the box, it appears that she didn't have her purse with her." Wolfe said.

"The pattern was developing quiet clearly now although there are still many variables the only other common link we could find was that all the women were between thirty and thirty-five," Kane finished.

"I noticed that all the women are about the same height," Scully commented and then all the agents and officers checked the files and looked back up at her in surprise.

"Nice find Agent Scully," Kane said, ad Mulder just rolled his eyes at Scully and then smiled.

XxXxX

After three hours of isolation the torturously stressful situation had really gotten to Monica. Deep fear had set in that she was never getting out, and the words _'The others that have come into this room have never gone out the same'_ had really gotten to her head.

_Maybe the others didn't go out the same because they died in here… _Monica feared and it was a rather unpleasant thought, to think that she could be lying on a table that other people had lost their lives on.

Desperation was at an all time high and Monica felt like she was on the edge of sanity. In a panic she once again she tugged and pulled as hard as she could to try and either break the metal restraints, or slip her wrists out of them, but in her frantic attempts to escape, she had no idea just how much damage she was causing to her body. Tears slid out of her eyes as the terror inside her raged a war, she was so freaked out by what was happening to her and she yelled out for help, hoping that on the off chance that someone might hear her cries.

Her wounds stung as sweat seeped into them, as the desperation, fear, hysteria and anxiety seeped into her heart and confused her body so much that she didn't know if she felt relieved or worried when Joshua Reed walked through the door to her 'cell' and finally broke the isolation.


	7. FBI

XxXxX _– Chapter 7 _

Joshua smiled at Monica and she felt even more unsettled as he approached and stood beside her.

"Hey Baby, how you doing?" He asked as he stroked wet hair.

Monica's eyes watered over and she felt so ashamed of her self as the tears slipped from her tired eyes.

Joshua smiled wickedly down at her, clearly pleased by this latest development, "Very good..." He mumbled to himself and sat down on the edge of the concrete slab, "Do you know what I realised Baby?" He asked and Monica shook her head, her eyes closed from the sheer embarrassment of crying, but she just felt so out of control and on edge, "I realised," Joshua continued, "That I don't even know your name Baby," He said, moving his hand from her hair to the concrete beside her head, so that he was leaning over her, "So Baby, what's your name?"

Monica hesitated and then opened her eyes.

"What's your name?" He asked again in a warning tone.

"Monica," She chocked out, shifting her arms uncomfortably when Reed ran his hand up and down the inside of her arm.

"Monica…" He said to himself, testing the sound of her name, "Okay Monica, well, how about we get to know each other a little better? Hm?" Joshua said as more of a rhetorical question, his fingers trailing down Monica's shirt just so he could watch her squirm uncomfortably, he dismissed the quiet, but audible, small sound of distress that she made, "So where do you work?"

Monica hesitated again, her confused brain going a million miles an hour, she knew that answering the question truthfully could put her life at even more risk, while she didn't want to think of the consequences of being caught out on a lie considering the horrors she had been put through for challenging him.

Joshua looked down at her, taking her hesitation as a stubborn streak.

"Um, I-I don't work," She lied.

"Oh reeaallllyy?" Joshua asked rhetorically, "Don't lie to me!" He suddenly yelled, and Monica tensed up, expecting him to hit her again. But instead Joshua put his hand on her shirt and he undid the first button, Monica's eyes welled up again.

"No!" She cried out desperately, pulling on the binding chains that rendered her powerless to the mans attacks, "Stop! Please stop!" She begged, more tears sliding out of her eyes as he had opened the first three buttons.

"Then tell me the truth," Joshua said calmly.

"Okay, I work for the government," Monica answered, using her arm to wipe away a few of the tears.

"Come on _Moni _I can call you Moni right?" Joshua asked rhetorically, "You gotta give me more detail than that," He teased, fingering the forth button and eyeing the exposed skin, tilting his head he could see the edges of her black bra. Monica knew where his eyes were and what he was thinking. It made her burn with shame. She wasn't overly self conscious with her figure, _usually_, although this was far different from a comfortable situation. This was different and the shame burned her skin like fire so that not even the useless tears that suicided down her face and dispersed upon impact with the concrete below her, could extinguish the burning shame.

"FBI," She choked out, trying to turn away from her tormentor.

"Oh I know Baby, I know," He said and watched the confusion set on her face, "I read your badge. I had to test you to be sure that you wouldn't lie to me again… But there is hope for you yet Moni."

Monica was still confused, "W-wait, i-if you read my badge then how come you said that you didn't know my name?"

"I didn't read the whole thing, but the big blue letters that read 'FBI' kind of stand out you know?" Reed answered, "But moving onto my next question, how old are you?"

Monica hated it when people asked her that question, it was so rude, "Thirty-five," She whispered.

Joshua smiled down at her, absently stroking her hair again he watched her as he thought of his next question, "Hmm, okay… next question… oh! Your hair."

"My hair?" She asked half in fear, she rather liked her hair.

"Mmm, you hair, do you colour it?" Joshua asked, feeling the soft tresses of her hair and hardly even noticing that Monica was practically hyperventilating from the extreme fear and anxiety of the situation presented to her.

"Yes," She breathed out, desperately trying to control her emotions but failing.

Joshua's face changed and he became very serious, he had not foreseen this answer, "What?" He said quietly, "No this can't be, this messes it all up- no no no no no no no no NO!" He raised his voice and got up as he spoke, slamming the door on his way out.

Monica breathed a little easier and realised she had tensed her arms, she relaxed her muscles but the adrenalin running riot through her veins kept her eyes dilated (despite the level of light she was in) and her senses hyper alert. She heard something crash and flinched as another drop of water hit her and made her feel cold, the fear that she was going to die or be in that house for the rest of her life grew. She knew that there were only so many leads, and once the trail grew there would be very little chance of being found. She knew her time was limited and that her time to be rescued was running out, as was her hope.

XxXxX

"And our latest victim, your agent-" Wolfe started but was interrupted.

"Special Agent Monica Jullietta Reyes, 35, born and raised in Mexico, English is her forth language but don't be mistaken, you wouldn't know it if you were to speak to her because she is extremely fluent in Spanish, her first language, English, French, and German. She graduated from Brown at 18 and has been an agent for over ten years. Most of her family lives in Mexico with the exception of her brother and his wife and child who moved to America four years ago just before their daughter was born," John said and went to continue but saw the weird looks that everyone was giving him.

"How do you know all of that?" Wolfe asked suspiciously.

"Agent Reyes told me and I looked at her file once," John said but they still looked at him oddly.

"Okay thank you for that, ah, insight Agent Doggett," Mulder said "But getting back to the more pressing details, she was taken two almost three days ago now. We found her badge, gun, purse and phone in the car but there was no actual evidence of foul play until we found Reed's prints on her phone.

"What's your plan?" Kane asked.

"We don't have one, we hoped you did because we haven't heard about this case until our Agent went missing," Scully said, "What do you plan to do?"

"Well there's nothing we rally can do, we've hit a dead end until we get something more on Joshua Reed," Wolfe said.

Mulder, who had been staring into space for the last few minutes, suddenly got up and silently left the room.

"Where's he off to?" Wolfe asked and Scully just shrugged, but she had a feeling of where he might be going. John then got up and left the room as well, frustrated as hell that they weren't getting anywhere, "Where's he going?" Wolfe asked.

"Maybe he went to do his job," Scully said and then also walked out of the room.

"Not a very nice or happy bunch of Agents are they Eric?" Kane asked her partner.

"Ah they work for the government," Wolfe replied.

"So do we, but you've heard the stories about them, I hear Reyes and Doggett go back a long way and there is speculation that they are in a relationship," Kane said.

"Eh, it wouldn't be too surprising, I hear she had a relationship with her boss," Wolfe replied.


	8. Released

_Happy Christmas everyone! For the X-mas update I decided to make things a little better for our characters in some christmas spirit ;)_

* * *

><p>"Wait! I need your help!" Mulder yelled as the other man turned away.<p>

"I'm sorry Mr. Mulder, I can not help you this time, I am risking my life by being here,"

"Just give me licence plate, a make, a model, a colour, an address, a street name, something!"

"I can't! I can't help you with everything Mr. Mulder and you need to choose carefully about where you want help- but I can't help you here! It's too dangerous!"

"Why? Do you know where she is? Are these abductions more than they appear?" Mulder yelled but the man left.

XxXxX

"Well my dear Special Agent Monica Reyes of the FBI, what's say I let you out of here if you promise to do what you're told hm?" Joshua Reed asked who was once again straddling Monica's waist and intimidating her.

Monica looked up at her torturer, he had turned the infernal dripping water off, but her cheek stung from where he had hit her yet again. She was tired of this barrage of questions and being hit, but worst of all, Monica realised that he was really getting to her, that he actually scared her.

She nodded her head as answer, by now she just wanted nothing more than to get out of that room and go to the bathroom.

"What was that? I can't hear you," Reed said, leaning down a bit and putting his hand to his ear.

"I-I will," Monica said and then closed her eyes, her body tensing as she tried to prepare for being hit, thinking that he would hit her again for not giving a straight answer.

"Will what? You gotta promise me, and know that if you break that promise your punishment will be a lot worse than this,"

"Okay, I promise" She whispered, fearing to speak louder because she felt like she was going to break again as Joshua stroked her face and smiled at her.

"Promise what my dear Monica?" He toyed, fingering the edges of her now completely unbuttoned shirt, smirking down at her. There back and forth argument, questioning and testing had gone for some time now before reaching this pinnacle.

Monica felt humiliated, "I promise to do what you tell me to," She said quietly, still not opening her eyes.

Joshua smiled down at her; he knew how to get her to open her eyes. He moved the material of her shirt aside which had the desired affect, Monica's eyes shot open and he saw the fear written in them. Monica's almost hyperventilating breathing rate sped up even more. She shifted her arms, pulling again on the strong metal that held her down when Joshua trailed two fingers form her bare collar bone to the belt buckle on her jeans, "W-what are you doing? Let me go," Monica begged.

Joshua smirked again. _You're all the same. Although none of the others ever put up with so much violence… but the minute that it becomes that little bit more personal you all just shut down and start begging, pleading and crying. _He thought as he started at her, and then got off her. He pulled a key out of his pocket, walking over to her feet he undid the confining metal then proceeded to undo the shackles around her wrists.

Monica sighed very lightly and sat up sluggishly, feeling very weak both emotionally and physically. She rolled her ankles and shoulders, stretching her sore body. Her arms and legs where numb and she tried to wake up her sleeping limbs. She looked down at her hands and saw for the first time the damage that she had caused in her fit of panic and attempts to escape. Her jaw dropped and her eyes went wide at the sight of the ghastly cuts and friction burns as well as the severe grazes and developing black and blue bruises.

Joshua touched her shoulder through which blood flow was still being restored and currently had a severe case of pins and needles and Monica jumped when he touched her, "You brought this upon yourself you know. I warned you," He said and she looked up at him and he took a hold of her arm which forced her get up even though she body wasn't fully awake as he directed her the bathroom, "Go clean yourself up, you've got five minutes," He said shutting and locking the door.

Monica touched her finger to her lips and pulled it to find blood on it. She went over to the sink and washed her ands wrists of the mostly dried blood and then buttoned up her shirt, trying to ignore the stinging in her hands and wrists. She searched through the cabinets and found a first aid kit which she emptied onto the ground and found an antiseptic cream that she then applied to her wrists and bit her lip as it stung harshly, forgetting the cut that was there which immediately started bleeding again. Next she put the toilet lid down and sat on it and having found a length of bandage, she wrapped it around her wrist quickly and tied it off neatly and then did the same for her other wrist.

Standing up Monica took the cream and went back over to the sink; her reflection was some what frightening for her to see. She saw the gash above her right eye and the bruise that would form on left side of her face and then the cut on her lip that was swelling up. Monica cleaned some of the dry blood off the cut on her head and then took the cap off the cream and rubbed a little of it into the wound. Then not finding anything suitable to dress it with, she left it and moved on. She took off her shoes and rolled up the edges of her jeans and then took off her socks, the bright red friction burns stood out immensely. But she was very aware of time quickly passing and repeated the cleaning, sanitising and dressing process all over again.

"One minute!" She heard Reed call and hurried to pack everything back into the first aid, having already put her socks and shoes back on, but she till desperately needed to pee.

Outside, Joshua paced the corridor and wondered how to proceed next, he was very happy with himself for breaking Monica the way he did. He realised that he'd had her now for almost two days and she hadn't slept or eaten anything since he had taken her, then he further realised she may not have eaten anything for even longer than that if she hadn't eaten much or missed a meal on the day he had taken her. And even he could put together that it wasn't looking so good for Monica if she didn't eat something soon.

Joshua walked back to the bathroom door, unlocked it and opened it to found Monica washing her hands. Her head flew up as she heard the door open and gave a slight breathy gasp.

Joshua smiled at her, "Times up Baby," He said and walked over to her, taking her hand he noticed the bandages on her wrists, "Wow… your fast," He turned her hand over and inspected her bandaging, "Hm, not bad," He commented though he was secretly a little impressed by the work that was done in such a short time.

He then walked out of the room, still holding onto Monica and took her to the dinning room where two plates with sandwiches on them sat at the table. Joshua gestured for her to sit down and she did, scrutinising the food in front of her and wondering if it were poisoned.

Reed had seen that look before and eh knew what was going through her mind more or less, "Don't worry Monica it's not poisoned," He said, taking a bite out of the sandwich in front of him. Monica hesitated but was too hungry to care that much about poisoning and took the risk.


	9. Tapes and Rusted Fords

_Day 3 _

"Oh nice of you to join us Agent Mulder," John commented sarcastically as Mulder walked through the door of their basement office.

Scully looked up and smiled as the Agent spotted her, she stood up from her desk, embracing Mulder and he held her back, "Where have you been? When I didn't hear from you I got worried, it's been almost a whole day… and then when you weren't in your apartment?... Are you okay?" Scully asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Mulder said shrugging off her concern and Scully could see that he wasn't going to tell her anything in front of Agent Doggett, "So we're we at?"

"No where, we've gone over the results, profiles, camera footage-" Scully suddenly stopped mid sentence and Mulder recognised that connecting-the-dots look.

"What is it?" Mulder asked.

"Camera's, isn't there a security camera on the building across from Agent Reyes apartment?"

"I'm not sure, let's go check it out," Mulder said and the dynamic duo left, leaving a discombobulated Doggett behind.

XxXxX – _Outside Monica Reyes Apartment Block _

The two Agents got out of their FBI fleet sedan and looked across the street at the buildings opposite Agent Reyes apartment. They spotted the camera Scully had spoken of and walked towards the building.

Inside they were lucky to find a security guard walking across an otherwise deserted foyer, "Excuse me, FBI, I'd like to ask you a few questions," Scully said and showed him her badge.

"FBI? What do you want to talk to me for?"

"There was a kidnapping across the street three days ago; do you know anything about that?" Scully asked.

"No I don't- a kidnapping? Oh god, who was kidnapped?"

Mulder pulled out a picture of Monica, "This woman, she's a co worker of ours," Mulder said and showed the man the photo.

"Monica? She's missing?" the guard asked as if not believing it.

Mulder and Scully looked at each other for a brief moment and then looked back at the man, "You know Agent Reyes?" Scully asked surprised.

"Yeah Yeah I've spoken to her a few times," He said and then changed to a more relaxed tone, "Actually, the first time I met Monica I found her picking the lock to one of the apartments in her block- you see I do security for both buildings, anyway I thought that she was trying to break in, but it turned out that it was her apartment and she'd just lost her key! That's when she told me that she was FBI… Geez kidnapped…Will she be alright?"

"We're unsure at this point in time, but we certainly hope so," Scully said.

"Mr…" Mulder checked the name tag, "Darris, we want the footage from three days ago," Mulder said trying to keep the conversation on topic.

"Yeah sure, what ever I can do to help, right his way," Mr. Darris said and led the agents to a room where a few monitors fed the outside footage to. He went over to a set of shelfs full of videos and checked the dates on the spines, picking out the right one and inserting it into a nearby TV, it started to play.

"Fast forward it," Mulder said and Mr. Darris did so.

They watched as the day sped past and the scene began to grow darker. The street lights had turned on by the time they saw Monica's car. They called out 'stop' as the scene played out before their eyes.

Monica got out of her car, but as she reached back in for something, they saw Reed as he came up behind her and grabbed her, his covering her mouth with a cloth. They watched her to fight back, and recognised the move from their own FBI training, but Reed retaliated by pulling her arm behind her back and pulling her so that she was arched awkwardly backwards so that she couldn't hit him and so that he was the only thing holding her up. Then her body went limp as she passed out.

They watched as he laid their agent on the ground and then injected something into her arm and then emptied her pockets in her car. Reed then picked up the female agent and carried her off to the side of the screen where an old rusted red Ford was parked. Reed dug out his keys and unlocked the car, carefully laying Monica in the trunk and then closing the lid before getting in the car and speeding off.

Mr. Darris stopped the tape and turned to look at the agents, "I really hope you find the sick bastard that took Monica, she's a nice woman- a lovely woman, simply gorgeous and the neighbours love her, they feel more secure having an FBI agent around the place."

"Thank you for your help Mr. Darris we'll let you know when we find her," Scully said.

Mr. Darris nodded his appreciation, "That would be good. I like your attitude Agent Scully, 'when we find her' and not 'if we find her'."

"I don't see it as an option." Scully said and then they left taking the tapes with them and went back to the Hoover building to have the tapes analysed.


	10. BOLO

_Happy New Year everybody! Lets make it a good one, I have heard speculation that there is going to be XF3 coming out at the end of the year!_

* * *

><p><em>Day four<em>

"Ahhh this is so frustrating!" Doggett said clearly annoyed, "Why aren't we getting anywhere? You said you got the tape from the building opposite M-Agent Reyes right? And you put out a BOLO?" John asked.

"Yes and yes," a bored Scully responded, she was really wishing for an excuse to get out of the office, John was driving her nuts, every sentence had the words 'Agent Reyes' or 'BOLO' or 'Reed' and she was really beginning to get tired of his constant annoyance, "And at this point there is really nothing else that we can do until we get a hit off either the car or Reed," Scully further added, hoping that would be the end to the incessant questions.

But unfortunately for Scully, Doggett wasn't done griping, "When was the last time that someone checked the BOLO's?

Scully inwardly sighed, her eyes flicking to the roof for a second, as if the answer to finding patience was up there, "Fifteen minutes ago, and before you ask, you'll be receiving a text message if the BOLO comes back on Reed, the Ford OR Agent Reyes as will AD Skinner and Follmer, Mulder, Officer Kane, Office Wolfe and myself," Scully said feeling a little exasperated.

This time John sighed, feeling useless and helpless just sitting at his desk and waiting for something to happen.

"Could you make it anymore obvious?" Scully asked, walking over to John's desk, needing to change the subject a bit.

"What are you talking about?"

"You like her, Agent Reyes I mean, it's pretty obvious. The way you smile at her, call her by her first name- as you almost did a moment ago, and in the way you watch her but most obviously in the way that you become so…" Scully couldn't think of the right words to not sound mean but get the point across, "something between needy and whiny- I guess the way you go crazy, like this when she's not around. So how long have you two been dating?" Scully suddenly asked, taking John by surprise, he was still stuck at 'needy'.

"Ahh…" He stammered, trying to think of how best to avoid the question but still answer it and Scully could see that.

"Come on I can see it in the way her eyes just absolutely dance when she sees you. Everyone else can see it, everyone else but you it seems,"

"Uh… ah…. a while… sort of…it's-"

"Aha! I knew it! When did it start? After that doctor tried to kill her the night of her car crash? After your mysterious trip to Mexico? After the smoking man died and we had to go on the run? After we got back to together?"

John was a little overwhelmed, "Mexico, after I got my memory back," John replied, "Just, don't go spreading it round."

"I- what makes you think I would?" Scully was a little offended by this, "I would never, it would give those vultures the ammunition that they need to close the X Files for good, and maybe forever."

John shrugged and put his hands in pockets, standing up also, "We're not exactly in a personal relationship per se, it's just," He paused, "Not complicated but…" He stopped again and Scully could see that he was trying to figure our how to phrase it just right, "Okay I've taken her to dinner a couple of times but that's all it really is, dinner or drinks at the bar, nothing more."

"Not even a 'goodnight kiss'" Scully jokingly asked, she knew the answer and knew that Monica would have told her if he had.

"No. Our relationship is purely platonic and professional." John defended and sat back down, pretending to be reading the file in front of him.

"Oh really, that's not what I heard," Scully responded and John stopped pretending to read and looked back up at her.

"And what _have_ you head you?"

"That you did kiss Monica once about-" She said, making it that bit more personal by using Reyes' first name.

"That was a long time ago," John interrupted.

"So it's true, you did kiss her?" Again Scully already knew the answer but she just wanted to know how much he was willing to admit to.

"It was the night we found Luke and I was drunk. I didn't even know it was her and I don't even remember that night," He lied and he remembered back to seeing Agent Reyes walk into that bar, dressed casually, and walk right into the middle of the bar fight he was in, stopping it by simply standing in between the two men, neither wanted to nor was willing hit a woman. He remembered very well walking out of that bar with Monica leading him to her car and then pressing her against it and locking lips. Oh yes, he very much remembered it, but he wasn't to tell Scully.

"Uh-huh, sure, whatever," Scully said and then went back to the desk she shared with Mulder and picked up a file.

"Agent Scully," John called and she looked up, "Just what exactly did you hear?" He asked, but she only gave him a smirk before pretending to work.

XxXxX _Day four – Evening _

Monica's hands were like shrivelled prunes from all the chemicals that her skin had been exposed to during the day.

She pulled the last plate out of the sink and scrubbed the crumbs off it before rinsing it off and placing it in the drying rack. She pulled the plug and rinsed the soap suds off her hands and reached for a tea towel when two hands landed on her hips and she gasped but stood still to avoid further injury at the mans hands. She closed her eyes and quietly awaited to hear her fate.

"Very good, but your not done yet." He whispered into her ear, "Now you have to clean the sink, like so," Reed said and grabbed Monica's hand and put the sponge in it and then with his hand over hers, he mopped up the water around the sink and then placed the sponge back in its spot, "Now you're done. You'll do the dishes after each meal so that the sink doesn't get cluttered," Reed said and taking her elbow as he led her down the hall to his bedroom.

The anxiety that had never left her over the last four days once again increased. Any time she was allowed to sleep, she had slept alone in a room all by her quite happy self.

_Oh no, surely not, he can't want… Oh please no, don't let it be what I fear… _

His hand was on her hip, guiding her into his room but then diverting her to an en suite, "Tonight, will be different, tonight, you will sleep with me," he said and Monica visibly tensed at his choice of wording, _Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no NO! Big no! Nuh uh no way in HELL am I getting in a bed with him, and I am most certainly not- _She cut off her own thoughts and wanted to shiver, the thought made her feel sick, "And you will wear," _Oh God_! She thought, "this," he finished, and held up a green nightgown similar to one she had at home.

She breathed out not quite in relief, but calming down a little bit.

Joshua handed her the gown and then took her by the shoulder, disgusting Monica when he kissed her before leaving and shutting the door. Monica wiped her mouth and thought bitterly; _Well at least I have a bit of privacy and he doesn't want me to change in front of him._

She held up the gown and inspected it a bit more closely. It looked a little on short side and looked more 'showy' than anything she'd normally wear, but she didn't see any other acceptable choice, wearing jeans to bed was simply uncomfortable and there was no way in hell that she was going to bed in her underwear. That was something that she only ever did when she was at home. _Alone. _She sighed, looking at the gown once more and then changing into it.

She was right, it was a bit small for her, it showed a lot more than she intended, cutting low across her chest and the hem stopped mid thigh. But she reminded her self that she had no say in the matter.

She jumped when Joshua banged on the door and called out to tell her to hurry up. Quickly gathering her things and folding her clothes together, she opened the door and shyly entered back into the bedroom.

Joshua turned around at the sound of the door and smiled as he saw her, he went up to her and took the clothes from her slightly shaking hands that gave away her anxiety, and placed them on a nearby chair, his hands then sliding to her waist, drawing her closer to him. Her hands where on his chest and under normal circumstances she would have thought the scene romantic.

But his advances where unwelcome. It wasn't that he wasn't a potentially attractive guy, he was, but her heart was already taken and she was starting to realise it. That, and the fact that he had abducted and tortured her for gods sake, if you want a girlfriend you try dating, you don't abducted and torture the poor woman.

She pushed gently away from him as he went to kiss her again, the movement was tentative and she feared the consequences which came quickly. He struck her cheek and she cried out, "No!" hoping that he wouldn't beat her like he did last time she challenged him. He turned her head to face him, "Don't do that," he warned calmly and then went to kiss her again, gauging her reaction. He heard her small noise of discontentment, almost fear, that nearly sounded like a 'no' but he followed through and kissed her.

The kiss was different to all the other time he tested her, it was more emotional, but not even remotely close to passionate or loving, but it did show a deeper side with a small sense of care. He wasn't rough, pushy, or harsh like usual, but it still wasn't that passionate, igniting, love transpiring kiss that one finds with the one they love. But none the less it still showed a slightly gentler side to the man who had tortured her, and that confused her brain. His lips were gentle, as where his hands in the way he held her, and he kissed her for a fraction longer than usual though Monica did not participate.

Joshua pulled away pleased at the latest 'progress', though he had no idea what was going through her mind. He guided her to the bed and pulled back the cover, "Get in," he commanded.

Monica snapped out of the trance, the idea that the man who she was forced to share a bed with, was somewhat caring, really messed with her head.

She watched as Joshua walked around the other side of the bed and she very reluctantly slid under the sheets and facing away from Joshua as he stripped down to his boxers and got in behind her. Monica's usual feelings of dislike, disgust, fear and hatred of the man returned as his hands slid along the side of her body like the snake she thought he was, and cringed when wrapped his arm around her waist.

_Sleep is not going to be easy tonight. _She sighed, waiting till Joshua fell asleep before trying to detach her self from the man she despised. _Maybe now's my chance to escape. _


	11. Knifed

Monica successfully slid of Joshua's arms and quietly walked around the bed, watching Joshua to make sure he didn't wake up. She went to the chair which her old clothes lay on and she was well aware that she had been wearing them for days, and the thought didn't sit well in her head, but she knew that if she was going to try and get out, she wasn't going to be going anywhere wearing that gown.

She made it to the chair and Joshua hadn't moved, she picked up her clothes and kept her eyes on Joshua and she changed quickly and quietly into the jeans and shirt, then knelt down and pulled her socks on over the bandages and then her still laced shoes and stood up.

Slowly she inched towards the door and watched her footing and where everything was. Still Joshua hadn't moved and she was beginning to really think that she had a chance. Walking backwards towards the door she bumped into something and jumped and her hand flew to her mouth to stop her gasp being heard. Adrenalin made her senses hyper alert and her keen eyes watched for any movement from Joshua, but still he slept. Monica forced herself to try and calm down a bit. Her hand found the edge of the door and she opened it, thankful that it didn't squeak as she did so.

Monica backed out of the room and then shut the door to reduce the chance of him waking up from a noise she might make. She turned around and then made her way to the kitchen, firstly looking for something she would use as a weapon and thought it was a bit cliché as she armed her self with a massive cake knife that she had found in a draw.

Monica left the kitchen through a back door and found herself in a laundry, staring at what appeared to be the back door of the house. She inspected the door and its frame for anything out of the ordinary, tried the door handle but the door was locked and she had no idea where the key was. _Crap. _She thought and then headed back through the kitchen and down the hallway she had previously walked through, walking almost all the way back to the room she had escaped from she noticed a hall way that she had missed before. At the end of the hallway was another door. She walked towards it quietly and tried the handle, but again it didn't open, though she wasn't too surprised by it, but she was getting more and more anxious.

Monica backtracked and started looking for windows, but all the ones that she could see had alarms on them.

The panic rose again and she started to look around more frantically, she thought that maybe she could make it out a window and out run or hide from Joshua. She walked into a room, realising that it was the one she first woke up in and she went over to the widow, severing the cords to the alarm. When nothing sounded and she didn't hear anything she opened the widow, preparing to climb out but something felt off. It very quickly became clear to her what 'felt' off as a hand wrapped around her mouth and waist simultaneously and cut off her scream.

XxXxX - _Hoover Building Basement Office_

John was asleep at his desk when his phone rang; he answered it immediately, "John Doggett,"

"Agent Doggett go count sheep at home, not at your desk," Skinner's voice came down the line and hearing his boss's voice, he shot upright in his chair.

"Sir I-"

"Go home, that's an order," Skinner said, knowing Doggett's marine background.

"Yes Sir," John said and looked at the phone, Skinner had disconnected the call before he's had a chance to speak again. He set the phone down and looked at the clock, it was close to eleven pm. John looked around the room and then sighed, picking up his jacket he decided that he should at least head home and change, have a shower, maybe even get a little sleep if he was lucky. It made him wonder if this was how Monica felt when he was missing in Mexico, and he began to wonder if she wasn't able sleep as he was now, if she had become obsessed with finding him as he was with finding her.

John went home and showered and changed into some more comfortable clothes, then sat on his couch and put his head in his hands, all he could think about was Monica, he worried for her and he wouldn't admit it but he was scared for her, and he realised he had become obsessed with finding her alive, much like he had with Luke when he had disappeared. His primary focus then was to find him alive, and it damn near killed him when they found him in that field, now that Monica had disappeared, he realised just how much he relied on her constant presence, he hadn't realised that she was a pillar of strength for him until she was gone.

Everything came back to Monica when he thought about it, a song on the radio, her desk at work, everything around him. He noticed that her jacket was draped across a chair from the last time she was at his place.

There was a building darkness with in his heart that he hadn't felt since Luke died. He tried to fight against it, but it was so painful and strong, but he managed to force it aside, forcing himself to believe that she was alive, even if it had been almost five days, he wouldn't believe that she was dead until he saw her body. He couldn't shut down; he had to keep going until he found her. He believed he would find her; it was not a question of if, but when.

He forced his mind to keep the darkness of his heart at bay, and to keep his eyes open, because when he closed them all he saw was Monica, lying in that hospital bed, the machines all showing flat lines. But forcing ones self to stay awake is not as easy as it sounds, he had already been awake for almost a day and even though sleep was hard to come by for John at a time like this, he was exhausted and didn't even realise that he had fallen asleep.


	12. Not Again

_Okay guys, If you haven't already figured out I rated this story 'T' for its brutal violence, and I feel I should warn that this chapter is very violent._

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><p><em>Day five- one am<em>

Monica still held the knife in her hand and reflexively lashed out; slicing the side of Joshua's leg though he didn't seem to notice as he tried to disarm her of her only weapon.

"I gave you a warning Monica, and I'll give you another," He said harshly into her ear, "Scream and you'll die,"

He took his hand off her mouth and made a grab for her wrist but Monica was quicker and managed to pry his arm from around her waist and she turned around to face him, "Stay away from me!" She yelled, the knife brandished in front of her though Joshua didn't seem fazed by it. He stepped towards her and she stepped back, not all too confident. He leered at her as he approached and he knew that soon he would have her in a corner.

Monica predicted his actions and when he lunged at her she dodged his hands and swung the knife at him but she missed. Monica had her sights on the door and she made a break for it, reaching it in perfect time to see the door opposite which she ran through and slammed shut just before Joshua crashed into it, she gasped with the force of the blow but stood with her back against the door in an attempt to hold it closed. She hadn't noticed that she had dropped the knife.

Monica realized that she was in the bathroom that she had been in before and she put her feet against the edge of the shower block to brace herself as she tried to hold the door shut. Joshua kicked the door and it opened a little bit briefly with the force of the kick, but Monica held up.

After a few attempts Joshua stopped and Monica breathed a little easier but she then wondered what he was up to. He didn't seem like the type to quit so easily so it made her curious as to what he was doing and why he had stopped. She stopped pressing the door closed but kept on guard though the door didn't move. Monica put her ear to the door and heard retreating footsteps so she decided to open the door a bit and see what he was doing and as she had thought Joshua was retreating to his room. For a moment Monica considered quickly changing rooms but she couldn't think of where else to go.

Then she heard the footsteps quickly approaching and she slammed the door shut again but not before Joshua could reach it. With everything she had she pushed against the door to try and fully close it again so that she could lock it, but steadily the gap between the door and the frame was getting bigger and Monica's muscles were become steadily more tired in her already weakened state.

It was a battle of brawn that Monica knew she wasn't statistically able to win but she pushed against the door with every ounce of strength she had but Joshua was not only able to match her strength but better it and smash the door right into her head, knocking her backwards but not before he caught her shirt and pulled her back to her feet and into the hallway.

He kicked the back of her legs which knocked her onto her hands and knees. Monica was trying to get up when she felt something lash across her back and her scream of pain was cut short by a hand closing over her mouth to silence her and an arm around her waist to pull her upright.

She could feel Joshua's mouth near her ear, "I will say it one more time, scream, and I'll kill you," His dark voice told her and Monica couldn't help as tears of fear started to form in her eyes. Her hands were on top of his, trying to pry them from her mouth before she suffocated, "I don't want to kill you, I quite like you. You're different from the others, the others weren't as strong, determined or such fighters as you," He continued and she felt the top of his nose trail along her neck and cheek, "You're quite resilient too, you put up with a lot but you cause too much trouble for your own good. If you just did as you were damn well told to then this wouldn't happen… if you just did as you were told then I wouldn't have to kill you." He said and Monica tried to speak though the sound was distored because of Joshua's hand over her mouth, "What's that Baby? You wanna say something? You don't want me to kill you? Well I think that's just too bad Baby because I gave you a chance, but you disobeyed me, again," Monica pitched sideways in his arms, trying to get him to let go as she made sounds of protest. Joshua let go of her waist and Monica heard something metallic move and then a pain in her side as she was struck with the object, another cry of pain was muffled by the hand covering her mouth, "I really wish you wouldn't do that," He said, referring to her trying to get away from him, "and I wish I didn't have to kill you, you really are a beautiful woman Monica and it really is a shame that I have to kill you, I really would have liked for a strong and beautiful woman like you to be my wife… but you're just too disobedient and I can't have that, and I can't leave you alive because I can't have you trying to run back to your FBI friends."

Monica's muffled protesting cries continued, "No!" She tried to say but was once again hit by object.

"Get up," He hissed stood up, letting her go completely, she fell forward but caught herself on one arm, the other held her side as she tried to control the pain without any success. Joshua was growing impatient, "I said GET UP!" He roared and kicked her in the stomach, knocking her onto her back.

"No," Monica's shaky voice said and she identified the object that was coming steadily towards her and she raised her arms to protect her face. She saw the black whipping through the air and the metal clasp rushing towards her body. A belt. He was hitting her with his belt. It struck her ribs twice and then her arm. She flinched every time, pleading for him to stop, "Please, stop," She begged as he cracked the belt down on her stomach savagely she wasn't able to stop the cry of pain, but no sooner than the sound was out of her lips was her hand was over her mouth, her eyes wide in fear and a tear slid out from her eye.

She saw the look of craze in his eye and it scared her. He bent down and grabbed the front of her shirt with both hands and pulled her up off the ground, his face close to hers and he could see her fear in the way she breathed rapidly, the way her eyes pleaded for him not to kill her, the way her hands only grabbed at his wrists and didn't attempt to fight back. He had a dark smile on his face and he pushed her into an unfurnished room with ancient half peeled wall paper.

He shut the door with his foot and then forced her against the wall, he grabbed her arms and tied them together with his belt ,"Wwhat are you doing?" Monica asked, the fear betraying in her voice and he then pulled her around to face him, he pulled a knife from behind his back and held it to her throat. He heard her feared breath in and he watched as she tried to move closer to the wall and away from the knife, but her head was already against the wall.

"So how shall we do this Baby, one shallow slice across your neck…" His eyes traveled her body, "…or a series of little cuts?" He tormented.

"Please don't," Monica begged and stopped speaking when Joshua dug the knife into her skin more to the point where it hurt. Her resolve was thin and she felt weak.

"It's too late Baby,"

"No," her shaky and pleading voice said as she fought for control over emotions.

"I gave you numerous chances,"

"Please," She whispered and gasped as he turned her around and placed the knife against her neck again.

"What can you do about it?" He asked into her ear, making the intimidation that much worse now that she was bound as well out of control and injured. The fight was anything but fair and even Joshua didn't know how she was still able to stand after all that he had done to her.

Monica said nothing, she just stood still, her wrists tied behind her and the cold metal of the knife blade pressing into her skin even more, starting to draw blood lightly. Her muscles tightened and it was hard to contain the sounds of her pain as it became more and more pronounced. "Nothing," Monica finally answered, figuring that he wanted a response, the fear evident in her voice.

"That's right; there is nothing that you can do to stop me from killing you, right here, right now," His tormenting voice whispered into her ear, "So what are you going to do to stop me? Huh? What are you gonna do about it?"

Monica knew there was nothing that she could do short or pleading for her life, "Please," Her quiet voice came and she closed her eyes for a moment, "Please don't-"

"Don't what? Don't cut your throat? Okay," He said and tucked the knife into the back of his jeans. Monica was confused until she felt a bolt of electricity course through her side and a hand went over her mouth again, "How about electrocution? Does that sound more appealing to you?" He continued his torture by pressing the stun gun to her side again and sending another bolt of electricity through her body.

"Mmmmmm!" Came what would have been a terrified scream of pain from beneath Joshua's hand before she couldn't hold herself up anymore. She collapsed and Joshua let her fall and put his foot on her stomach to hold her down. It made her back arch because of her hands being behind her. It didn't hurt so much that his foot was there, but rather that he was pressing down on developing bruises and small grunts of pain managed to escape.

"You haven't learnt to be quiet have you?" He asked and pulled a red bandana from his pocket and Monica didn't have any doubts about what he was going to do with that.

"No," She said again and he shocked her again and her body jolted.

"And why not?" He asked again, "Hm? Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you," he said, kneeling beside her.

Monica's eyes watered over, "I-I'm pregnant," She whispered, curling up into a partial ball. It was the only thing that she could do to try to protect herself from the bolt of pain that coursed through her body till she fell unconscious.

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><p><em>Meheheheheeee...<em>

_*sigh* It seems my last update went largly unnoticed, but hopefully this one resparks some interest :) As always. let me know what you think. Am I being to evil to Monica? _


	13. Tickle Attack, Panic Attack

_John's Apartment - Midday_

John woke up suddenly, jolting awake from his latest nightmare in which he could hear Monica calling out to him for help, her screams of agony reaching his ears but he couldn't find her amongst the darkness. He calmed down a degree when he found himself on his couch, but he was still very anxious.

He sat up and rubbed his face for a minute and then soot up and grabbed his keys.

XxXxX _Hoover Building_

John heard the elevator ding and stepped out, immediately feminine shrieks hit his ears.

"No! No, Mulder NO! Ahh!" came Scully's shrieks of laughter.

"Oh come on Scully," Mulder teased and was followed by more laughter and shrieking from Scully.

"Mulder! Mulder no, not here-" Her sentence was cut short by more laughing, "Not at work! No, stop, please stop- MULDER!" She shrieked.

John had stopped outside the door to listen to what was going on. He wasn't sure whether he shouldn't interrupt or if he should be bursting through the door. But from the sounds of Scully it sounded more like she was being tortured by Mulder, though not necessarily in a bad way.

He pushed the door open and found Scully doubled over by the cabinet with Mulder standing in front of her, tickling her. John didn't know what to say and so just stood there awkwardly as the pair fooled around. Scully was trying to get away from Mulders hands but he had her pinned against the filling cabinet and so she had limited options in where she could move to attempt escaping the tickle attack.

Scully looked past Mulder and caught sight of John, "John!" she called out in surprise and Mulder stopped, looking over his shoulder he saw the odd the look John gave them and he quickly stepped away from Scully, "How long have you been standing there?" She asked, tucking her hair behind her ears and moving towards her desk.

"Well I guess the typical answer would be, 'long enough' but I have been standing here 'long enough' to know that you're happy to mess about while our friend is missing and could quiet possibly be dead."

"Agent Doggett-" Scully started.

"No I get it-"

"No you don't 'get it'" Scully retorted.

"Yes I do, finding Reyes isn't your top priority I can see that-"

"Finding Reyes is my only priority, but in case you haven't noticed, Agent Doggett, there isn't a whole lot to do around here," Scully now stood right in front of John, looking up at him with her arms crossed, wishing she wasn't so short, "And moping about like you isn't going to solve this case and help us find her. If you have any information that you'd like to share with us about her whereabouts, do tell. But unless you know something that I don't, there is nothing more that we can do at this stage except wait and unlike you I'm not going to spend that time sitting in a dark oblivion, I'm going to keep head up and maintain a normal routine to life. It sucks that Agent Reyes is gone, and I don't like it anymore than you do, but unlike you I'm not going to let it rule my life," Scully stood her ground, "And I suggest that you stop letting your feelings for her cloud your objectivity and judgment like this before you get yourself killed."

Scully walked away from Doggett and over to Mulder, who help but smile at the red head who came and stood behind him.

XxXxX

Monica opened her eyes, she felt cold and her vision was slightly unfocused and her head throbbed. She blinked to clear her vision but it wouldn't clear. Her throat hurt and she guessed it was because of the gag in her mouth and tied around her head. She tried to cough to get rid of the irritating feeling at the back of her throat but it didn't work. She felt disoriented and dizzy as she looked around the room she was in, her eyes burned slightly but she recognized the room by the ancient peeling wall paper.

Her muscles hurt and whenever she moved she'd hit a bruise or another point of her body that had been damaged in one way or another. Moving hurt, breathing hurt, blinking hurt, her head hurt and the multiple points of pain made her want to give up. She had forgotten what she was fighting for. For the time being she was alone, and that was what did the damage. The combination of injuries, restraints, mind games, abuse and isolation caused her to panic and freak out. Tears streamed uncontrollably down her face, her shoulders shook and her heart was stormed by fear, a sudden claustrophobia attack wracking her body.

She heard a noise and stopped, listening out for the noise, fear still running through her. She heard the noise again, something outside made a noise. She thought that maybe whoever was there might be able to help her. She turned as much as she could her feet could reach the wall and she kicked it as hard as she could repeatedly, attempting to scream and make as much noise as possible to attract attention.

She stopped for a minute, breathing heavily she listened out for the noises again but when nothing was to be heard her eyes watered over again, thinking that she had imagined it. She was tired and unstable; fatigue was taking its toll on her. Her arms were numb but she pulled against the tied belt, not expecting it to budge but she had to try. She then decided to try something that she knew would hurt, but might result in her being a little more comfortable, and if she was lucky, free of the binding belt.

She kicked her shoes off and pulled her legs up to her chest, moving her arms to try and get her wrists each side of her feet and she inched the belt forward, trying to get it past her feet. After a few minutes of struggling and pain she succeeded and slip her wrists over her feet then rolled onto her back, pulling the gag from her mouth and closed her eyes, breathing heavy, the fatigue hit her again and she slipped out of consciousness.


	14. Joshua Reed

_AN: Well, things are starting to wrap up here, but my computer is now useless, the internet does not work at all, it's lagging in the extreme, and it does not work at all now, it died... :( It took me hours to get everything backed up onto an external hardrive. And finding ways to update is not as easy as you might think._

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><p>Scully stood behind Mulder and they looked at the screen, debating about what they were looking at on the computer screen. John sat at his desk, looking over Monica's file again. He only read the file for the picture that came with it; he had already unintentionally memorized all the information the file contained.<p>

He stared at the picture, stared at her eyes, wondering if he would ever see her again and be able to look into those brown eyes. They had such a depth to them; he loved to see the pattern that lay there. Her eyes told him so much about what she was thinking or feeling.

John's phone rang and he picked it up, "John Doggett" He answered, but no one replied, he pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at, "Oh," He muttered, seeing it was only a text, he opened it up and then bolted up from his seat, "They've got him!" He yelled and Mulder and Scully looked up at him as he moved out towards the door.

"Got who?" They asked in unison and then both the agents phones rang.

"Joshua Reed," John said and headed for the lift.

Mulder bolted up from his chair and Scully moved out of his way, and then they quickly headed out of the office and down to the police station.

XxXxX Interrogation room

Mulder, Scully and John all filed into the viewing room to watch as Officers Wolfe and Kane interrogated Joshua Reed.

"Jane Jones, Karen Steatler, Valarie Maxx, Sarah Mackenzie, Kensi Osborne, Zoe Thurling, Abigail Webb," Wolfe said, slapping folders down on the desk with photos and information on the women, "And Monica Reyes," Reed sat, handcuffed in the chair, smirking as he stared down at the pictures, he looked up when Reed mentioned Reyes, and everyone noticed it. Wolfe sat across from Reed.

"So?"

"So, you kidnapped these eight women."

"I've never seen them before," Reed lied, looking down at the pictures again, "They're pretty though," He said and his eyes ran along the line of photos, and settled on Monica's, "Specially her, she's beautiful," He said, his head turning to the side a little bit and indicating with his head to Monica's photo.

"Monica Reyes?" Wolfe confirmed and Reed nodded, "Then why don't you help us to save her?"

"It's too late to save her," Reed answered.

"So you admit to abducting and killing, not just her, but eight women?" Wolfe wanted a direct confession.

"No, I didn't say that."

"You see Joshua," Kane said, standing up straight after leaning against the door frame, "We know that you abducted those women,"

"I told you I've never seen them before, He lied again.

"Well I told you that we know you abducted them, you don't have to confess; we've got you on eight counts of abduction. You see you're not as smart as you think you are, you left your fingerprints at the crime scenes and we caught you on camera," She paused and they could see Reed trying to figure a way out. Kane leant back against the door again.

"You're going to be in prison for a long time, why don't you help yourself out by telling us where they are?" Wolfe said, but Reed clamed up, he wasn't going to say anything by the look on his face.

"What did you do to them Joshua?" Wolfe asked, and Reed glared at him, "Where did you take them?" He tried again.

Kane walked behind Reed and leaned against the wall, inspecting her nails, giving off the idea that she was bored, but actually she was paying very close attention, and not to her nails, "Did you kill those women Josh?" Kane asked and Reed turned around sharply to glare at her.

"Don't call me that!" He yelled, but Kane looked unaffected by his outburst.

"You know you're not doing your self any favours here, if you tell us where they are we could get you a reduced sentence," Wolfe offered but Reed made no motion to speak, "We can talk to the judge, tell them that you co operated, but only if you tell us where they are."

"I'm not saying anything; I know I don't have to."

Inside the observation room John had found himself standing next to Officer Kane and Wolfe's boss.

"Who found Reed?" John asked.

"Patrol car was testing out a new facial recognition program and stumbled across Reed accidently as he was walking out of a shop."

"Did they find his car?"

"No."

"You said that 'it's too late to save her', what did you mean by that?" Wolfe asked, but Reed said nothing, "You know where she is don't you?"

"What if I do?"

"You'd be helping both us and yourself if you told us where she and the other the women are,"

"What would you want with an FBI agent?" Reed asked casually and everyone looked up, Reed apparently hadn't noticed his slip up.

"I never said she was FBI," Wolfe said.

"Yes you did," Reed said, sitting up straighter, his eyes flashing on alert, "When you put down the folders,"

"No I didn't actually, I specifically left her job title out of it," Wolfe said, crossing his arms and sitting back, and Reed's eyes ran back and forth, realizing he'd messed up, "So where is she?"

"Okay, you got me, I admit to taking her, but I'm not telling you where she is," Reed said defiantly.

"You admit to abducting eight women?" Wolfe confirmed.

"I didn't abduct them!"

"Oh no, you just drugged eight women and took off with them in the trunk of your car and they've never bee seen again, is that it?" Kane butted in.

"I've seen them," Reed said.

"I know, I don't doubt that but we'd like to see them again," Wolfe said.

"No, they're mine, you can't have them," Reed said.

"They are not are not yours, they are humans beings, no one owns another human being," Kane said, suddenly appearing beside Reed.

"So what about slaves?" Reed countered, turning his head to look Kane in the eyes.

"There are no slaves now days, and what happened a few centuries ago wasn't right, nor is it relevent," Kane replied.

"He believes he owns these women now?" Scully asked, looking at Mulder and he nodded.

"He believes that the women he took are his because he took them, and he took them because he wanted them, but I can't tell you for sure why he wanted those specific women; you'd have to ask him that," Mulder replied.

John was getting impatient, "This is going no where," He said suddenly.

"Well we're further ahead than we were yesterday Agent Doggett, with a little time we could find the location where he's keeping the women and possibly save their lives,' Scully said.

"Yeah, or Reyes could be dying some where and his stalling could get her killed," Doggett countered.

"Either way, you bursting in there and demanding to know where she is wont get us any closer to her," Scully said.

"How'd you get that cut on your leg Joshua?" Kane asked.

Joshua looked down at his leg, blood had seeped through his jeans just above his knee, "Was running through the bush, got caught on a branch," He said and shrugged.

"Really? You were walking in the bush? Where exactly was that, this isn't exactly a jungle country Joshua, you don't just walk through bushes on a daily basis. You see I think that one of the women you abducted fought back and cut you with something," Kane said, leaning down to talk harshly into his ear, "Who was it?"

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><p><em>Well there you go, another chapter is up, and I've beaten the odds with the internet to do it, you're all very lucky to have this chapter. <em>


	15. Interrogation

Chapter 15 Interrogation

AN: Okay guys, well with my laptop stuffed, It's very difficult to update from a DSi! But you can be greatfull that I have managed to do it, after fiddling with connections and internet problems for an hour, I hope you all enjoy this chapter! :)

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><p>"You really care which one of those Bitches managed to strike back?" Joshua said idly and John's blood boiled, "It was that FBI chick, what was her name?" He looked at the roof, pretending that he forgotten her name, "Oh yeah, Monica. It was her,"<p>

Kane was getting through to Joshua, pushing him to speak, "And I bet that made you angry, didn't it? That she challenged you, that she fought back," She said, trying to push his buttons and get him to spill the beans, "You don't seem like the kind of person who would let something like that happen. So what did you do? Did you kill her for standing up to you?"

Joshua smiled and gave her a sly look, "No, I didn't kill her, but she'll wish I did," He said.

XxXxX

Monica's head throbbed and she still felt nauseous, her throat burned and she coughed to try and rid an annoying tickle in her throat. She didn't want to try opening her eyes to see if they still burned, mostly because she didn't want to find Joshua beside her. She didn't want to open her eyes to be tortured or beaten again, or to have make promises about escaping and 'disobeying', she did want to open her eyes to have to beg and plead for her life again. Every where hurt, her muscles were tense and sore from lying in the same place for hours on end, her head hurt, her sides hurt from being shocked, her previously hurt wrists that were now bound hurt, her back stung and it hurt to breathe to deeply, she knew that her body was riddled with bruises from where Joshua had kicked her, hit her and either smashed her into objects, or smashed objects into her.

Tears filled her eyes and there was nothing she could do to stop them from cascading down her face. Her shoulders shook as she tried to breathe through the emotional and bodily pain she felt. Her mind was running over time, going over every action, reaction, and thought over the last six days and wondering what would have happened to her had she done things differently.

Monica was lying on her side, her fore head rested on the floor and her tears collected into a tiny puddle. Her tears were not for the aches and pains that she should have felt, they were for her breaking spirit. She was out of tune to her bodies physical condition and could only feel the shattering of her heart as she realised it was very highly likely that she would never see the one person that she wanted to see.

Her mind was on John. She knew he would take her death hard, she knew that it would haunt him as his sons death had. It had take him over a decade to let his young sons death go. She wondered how long it would take him to get over hers.

She opened her eyes to the desolate room and the tears flowed fast and freely. She chocked on her heart and she was glad that there was no one there to see her breakdown.

She briefly wondered what was in the water to make her feel so broken, and mentally laughed at herself for the thought, for she knew that she had not had anythting to drink in days, and very little to eat.

But as her heart was breaking, her only thoughts were of John. She felt a little bad that she wasn't fighting all that hard to live for him, but she figured that he didn't even want her or he would have said or done something to let her know by now.

XxXxX

After hours of interogation, John didn't know what to do, Scully had dragged him out of the interrogation room and took him to the break room.

"Agent Doggett I realise that you have feelings for Agent Reyes, but you're letting your feelings cloud your judgement and get in the way of this investagation," Scully said, "And it's going to get either you or Monica killed." John was falling apart, Scully could see the struggle going on within, "We will find her John, I promise you that. If I have to torture the bastard for Monica's location myself, I won't hesitate and I think even the Gunnmen want a crack at this Jackass and his entire BS," Scully said, trying to lighten John's mood a little bit.

"Thanks for your concern Scully, but I just really want Monica back."

"I know you do, you're not the only one, we all want her back. But you just gotta wait, we'll find out where she is soon. And I bet that she'll have a few little bruises which you will fuss over while I'm trying to find any serious injuries. I won't find anything but you'll insist that she go to a hospital anyway and it will be like always with the two of you bantering about whether or not she should or shouldn't go to the hospital," Scully tried to help him. She could see that hope was diminishing in his eyes, but that secret love kept him hanging on, "You're worried for her," Scully said.

"Should I not be?" John argued, "From what Reed was saying, he's really done a number on Monica, I think I have every right to be worried for her safety, when for one, we don't even know where she is, and two, from the sounds of it, this guy has really hurt her!" John was furious, though he wasn't sure what he was particularly furious at.

"No, I would be worried if you didn't care. But you can't let this rule your life."

"What am I supposed to do?"

"Find an escape, something that's not FBI related, something that isn't violent or detrimental to your health."

"Like what?"

"Running, swimming, archery, reading, hell write a book if you feel like it!" Scully suggested.

"Well I don't feel like it, I feel like finding Monica before she dies," John said.

Scully was becoming a little annoyed now, "John you need to need to think about something else, Officer Wolfe and Officer Kane have spent hours with Reed, none of them have slept since he was brought in yesterday, they have hardly left the interrogation room you know that. They are chipping away at it, they are breaking through to him, it seems that he started to open up more when threatened with the electric chair. It seems that he doesn't know that practise is out of use," Scully added, "It's only a matter of time,"

And as if on cue, "THEY FOUND HIS CAR!" Officer Kane yelled, appearing from the interogation room as Reed was moved into a holding cell.

Officer Wolfe and Kane took off for the lifts.

Mulder, John and Scully went in one car and the two Officers went in other. They went in marked vehicles and the sirens blared as they sped through the streets to the address.

"Turn right" The computerised voice on the GPS said.

"Don't want to turn right Lola, that would run me right into a river," Officer Wolfe mumbled.

"You named your GPS?" Kane asked.

"Make a U- Turn in fifty meters, make a U turn now." The electronic female voice said.

"I don't want to make a U-Turn I want to turn left," Wolfe said.

"You talk to your GPS?" Kane asked.

"Recalculating." 'Lola' said.

"Thankyou!" He yelled at the GPS unit. Kane just rolled her eyes at her partner.

Mulder, Scully and John were the first ones to the house and they didn't wait for the two Officers. Mulder and Scully took the front door and John went around the back. They spoke through the earpieces that they had all set up on the drive to the construction site of a house.

"One..." Scully counted.

"Two..." Mulder picked it up.

"THREE!" John finished and the agents kicked the doors down, yelling and identifying themselves to anyone who may have heard them.

Mulder and Scully cleared the first bed room and then went down the corridor.

John cleared the laundry and kitchen that opened up to an eating area and a small lounge room. The three agents made eye contact and then there were four doors in the hallway that they found themselves in. Mulder and Scully took ones that were next to each other, finding the bathroom empty Scully went into the room Mulder was at and gasped.

"Agent Doggett," She called, and John immediately was beside her, and he saw the concrete table with the metal shackles. Three agents walked in slowly, guns by their sides as they walked to the table.

John walked up to the tap and looked at it, bending over to look up it from the angle a person on the table would. Mulder lifted one of the shackles at the foot of the table and inspected it while Scully used the barrel of her gun to shift the metal bindings at the top of the table around.

"There's blood on it..." Scully said and looked around a little more closely at the table, "And it looks like there's been a lot more previously that's been cleaned up." The three agents stood frozen, staring at each other and then John suddenly left the room and went to the one across from it, "What are you doing?" Scully asked and John stopped with one hand on the door handle.

"One more room... If Monica's here than she is on the other side of this door," John said and then didn't hesitate in opening the door. The three agents holstered their weapons and John was in the room in a second and by Monica's side.

"Monica!" He called, a hand on her hair he could already see some of her injuries though he didn't know that he couldn't even see the half of it. Scully came up on Monica's other side and checked her eyes.

"She's unconscious John, we need to get her out of here and get her to a hospital," Scully said and John immediately pulled Monica's limp, beaten body into his arms and carried her out of the building.

Officer's Wolfe and Kane came running out of there car and over to John as he laid Monica down on the concrete, taking his jacket off, folding it up and placing it under her head, he started to undo the belt that tied her hands together.

'"Agent Doggett what happened?"

"Not much, we found Monica but that's-" John was interrupted as the house behind him suddenly exploded.

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><p>Yeah yeah, hate me for putting in a cliff hanger, but I got bored... Review? Make me sane again so I update again before feb ends? Or are you getting bored with this story too?<p> 


	16. Boom

_You may think that there is a missprint, and I have made a mistake with numbers, but I assure you that I haven't ;)_

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><p>Officer Kane and Wolfe instinctively ducked when the explosion went off and John covered Monica's body.<p>

The three looked up and the house wasn't as damaged as they had expected, it was largely still intact, though the house was now in flames. John was torn between staying with Monica and searching for his friends.

Mulder's fear of fire returned and he got up off the floor, but stayed low. Then he spotted Scully under some debris, "SCULLY!" He yelled at her. Determined to beat his fear of fire and rescue the woman he loved.

Part of the roof fell in and Mulder's anxiety climbed higher than ever before. He looked over at Scully and then at the blaze around him, he swore the fire taunted him as he moved bits of steel, concrete and burning wood to get to Scully. Mulder crouched beside her, a hand on her cheek and he swore that his furiously beating heart stopped.

"Scully," He called, turning her head towards him, "Come on Scully," He said, tapping her cheek to try and rouse her. When she didn't move he began to worry about smoke inhalation and started moving fallen beams, bits of wood and other materials off her body. He lifted her back and put his arms under her to support her as he pulled her out of the wreckage of the burning house. He held her body tightly to his chest as the heat, smoke and fear climbed.

He couldn't figure out which way was out!

Mulder blindly made his way through the house and spotted light other than the flames that jumped out him. Mulder stumbled through to the light and found himself standing in blinding sunshine. He walked away from the house and laid Scully on the grass, his hand ran over her red hair and he found a deep cut near her hair line.

Mulder looked up upon hearing his name and he saw John sitting on the curb next to Monica, an ambulance was pulling up behind him. Mulder looked back at Scully, wishing for her eyes to open, he craddled her body and carried over to the EMt's. One of them stopped and helped load Scully onto the wheely bed, and another went over to Monica.

Mulder was hovering around Scully, and John was hovering around Monica, each giving the paramedics detailed accounts of what had happened.

Then a second ambulance arrived and two more paramedics got out and they went over to the two officers. Though it was uneccassarry for them to have done so because both officers had gotten away completely unscathed, not so much as a little scratch was on either of them. But the same could not be said for the two FBI agents. Niether conscious agent was aware of what damage had really been caused to the two unconscious females, or themselfs.

The two EMt's with the officers quickly turned their attention to Mulder and John and directed them to their van.

The male paramedic that was working with Monica came up to the second van, "Cam," The female paramedic next to John looked up, "we need you to transport the second victim to the hospital-"

"Her name is Monica Reyes, she's an FBI agent," John interupted.

"Sure thing Jay, no problem,"Cam answered and moved out of the way so that Jay could get to the gurney.

"What's your name?"Cam asked Mulder, since John wasn't paying her any attention.

"Specail Agent Fox Mulder," He answered.

"Fox? That's an interesting name, I haven't heard that one before,"Cam said, checking his head for injuries.

"I prefer Mulder if you dont mind..." He mumbled, really hopping that he wasn't going to have to argue with her about his name.

"Mulder huh? Do you make everyone call you by your last name?" She asked and checked his eyes.

"I swear that he even makes his mother call him Mulder," John piped in, as the male paramedic that riden with Cam cheecked John over as well.

"You got a name partner?" He asked John.

"Yeah I do, it's Special Agent John Doggett, but I'm not your partner, my partner is lying on the ground over there with tons of bruises and cuts and if you don't mind I'd like to check that she's okay," He said and pushed away from the paramedic and went over to Monica.

"Jay,"Cam called her parnter, "S'he good?" She asked, finished with checking Mulder over, he jumped off the step of the van and was off to see Scully. He had become very worried since he lost sight of the bed she was on.

"Yeah he's okay, he says he wasn't in the building when it exploded, but I don't think he realises that there is a two inch cut on his arm that I just bandaged," Jay said, documenting everything they had done since arriving on scene. Mulder sat beside Scully in the van, already she was attatched to an IV and he hadn't had time before to notice all the little cuts that riddled her arms, but he noticed now. He thought about how they were contained to only her arms, but he figured that (as a natural reflex) she would have raised her arms to protect herself when the house started to cave in.

John was standing with Monica at the second van when he heard more sirens. He looked up to find a fire truck pulling up, two men and two women jumped out and started yelling out orders at each other about how to put out the fire. Mulder and John didn't pay any attention to them, they were too busy worrying about the women that they each sat with.

"You riding with us?" Cam asked John and he nodded, then Cam jumped into the van and shut the doors, and Jay drove them off to the hospital, sirens blazing.

"Sir would you like to ride with us to the hospital?" The male paramedic asked Mulder when he spotted the man sitting next to Scully and holding her hand.

"Yes I will be," He replied and within seconds, they too were headed for the hospital.

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><p><em>Okay, there may be a few glitches in this one, but in my defence I wrote it at three in the morning and I'm lossing interest in writing this.<em>


	17. Hospital

XxXxX Chapter 17 - Hospital

"Can you please explain to me how three of my agents have ended up in the hospital and your still alive, conscious, breathing and standing!" Skinner barked at John.

"Well Sir, Agent Scully was concussed when the building exploded and fell apart, Agent Mulder collapsed beside Scully's bedside from smoke inhalation and he's been giving help breathing, and Monica is still unconscious, we're not too sure what's happened to her, she has abrasions and scrapes on her wrists and ankles, parallel cuts on her back, she riddled with injuries and bruises and cuts, and there are little inflamed dots all over her back, side and stomach, she has a bruise over most of the left side of her face and a cut to her fore head, and her lip looks like it's been split and re-"

"Agent Doggett I am aware of Agent Reyes injuries, but what I want to know is how the hell you got away without a scratch!" Skinner asked.

"Sir, I didn't, I got hit by shrapnel in the explosion."

"And no body thought to mention this?" Skinner asked.

"Sorry Sir, I'm not sure how that happened, things have been a little crazy around here, ahh I'll have to call you back Sir," John said and hung up, "Officer Kane, what are you doing here?"

"Agent Doggett, I came to ask if your partners' alright?" She asked.

"As well as she can be considering all that has happened to her... not that we know what happened to her..." John added, "Why do you ask?"

"Because... um, Agent Doggett, what do you know about her condition?" Kane asked.

"Answering a question with a question, and to answer your question I can name all her injuries."

"What about... more, personal...conditions?" Kane asked, wringing her hands tightly.

"What are you saying Officer Kane?"

"Um... Oh god... you don't know do you... oh god... how do I say this?" Kane mumbled to her self.

"Officer? What do you know about My Agent that I don't?"

"Reed told us that she's pregnant-"

"REED GOT MONICA PREGNANT?" John yelled and a few people looked his way while Kane looked down at the floor.

"I don't think so, he wouldn't able to know if she was pregnant after just five days, not for sure anyway. But I still don't think he got her pregnant, he told myself and Officer Wolfe that she told him that she was pregnant... do you know anything about that?"

"Nno..." John said, "As far as I know she hasn't been seeing anybody so this comes as quite a surprise," John said and he was truly shocked.

"Do you know if the baby made it?" Kane asked, "We are trying to hang him for more than just kidnapping, but I wouldn't wish for Agent Reyes to loose her baby."

"I don't know, now if you don't mind I am going to go see my partner," John said and left Kane standing in the hallway, turning and entering into Monica's room. He sat beside her bed and put his face in his hands. He couldn't believe that his partner of three years was pregnant and hadn't told him.

A doctor opened the door and John looked up, the doctor beckoned him outside.

"Doctor, is there any news? A woman I'm working with told me that Monica's pregnant, is that true?" John asked.

The doctor looked confused, "Pregnant? Are you sure, did she tell you this herself?"

"No, Monica didn't, the man that tortured her told one of the Officers interrogating him and then she just told me."

"Okay, well I'm sorry to tell you this, but as far as we know, your partner isn't pregnant," The doctor said and John nodded his thanks for his honesty and then returned to sit with Monica.

He took her hand in his and she stirred, he felt her hand move and his head shot up to watch as her head turned towards him he watched her tired eyes open with confusion. Then her eyes slipped shut again softly and she groaned softly at all the pain that she woke up in.

She heard her name being softly called and she reopened her eyes, finding John beside her and realising that he held her hand.

She smiled at him gently, "John..." The word was a whisper but it reduced her to tears, her eyes filled as she looked at John and she could see the pain that he was trying to hide. She squeezed his hand and a tear accidently slipped from her eye and fell down her cheek.

John reached out and wiped the tear tracks from her cheek, "Don't cry Monica," John whispered back, he really couldn't stand to see her cry.

"John..." She whispered again, unable to speak any louder.

"I'm here Monica, what's wrong?"

"John," Monica said, trying to form a sentance, more tears filling her eyes and cascading down her cheeks, she reached out for him and he got up and out of his chair and sat on the edge of Monica's bed, wrapping her in his arms as she cried into his shoulder, trying to speak.

He gently pulled her off his shoulder, "What did you say?" He asked softly.

Monica wiped her eyes, "I said you found me," She repeated, "I'm sorry."

"For what? You don't have anything to be sorry for, if anything I'm the one that's sorry."

"What are you sorry for? You found me before he killed me," Monica said.

John shook his head, "That's not what I meant, Monica... I'm sorry to tell you this, but um... you're not... you're not pregnant," He said, holding her hand gently.

Monica gave him a confused look, "Well that's a relief, though I don't know why you think I would be, you know I'm not seeing anybody?"

Now it was John's turn to be confused, "What do you mean? Officer Kane told me that you're pregnant," John said.

"Officer Kane? Who's he?"

"She, and she was working your case before we got wind of it..." John realised that he had a lot to explain, "It's a long story but to keep it simple for now, we apprehended Reed and he told Kane, who told me that you said you're pregnant," John tried to explain.

Monica gave a very small smile, "John, I'm not pregnant, and I never was, I just said that I was for an excuse," Monica said and she realised that she too had a lot to tell John, "You have no idea..." Monica started, remembering the fear and anxiety, "You have no idea, how many times he threatened to kill me, how many times he hit me to prove that he was serious, you have no idea of the things he did to me John, and as he held a knife to my throat and electrocuted me, he told me to give him one good reason for why he shouldn't kill me." There was anger rising in her voice.

"And you told him that you were pregnant?" John confirmed.

"John, he held a knife to my throat, and I wasn't exactly in the best mental state, it was the only thing that I could of," Monica said, in a tone like he had accused her.

"I'm not criticising you, I actually admire your strength through this whole ordeal."

"You don't know what I went through," Monica said, annoyed.

"I would if you'd tell me, but you don't have to get angry at me, I didn't do anything to you, I found you," John said, not understanding why Monica was being angry at him.

"Where are Mulder and Scully?" Monica asked, changing the subject, and John pointed over her shoulder.

Turning around she saw the two agents in separate beds, both in hospital gowns, "Are they unconscious or asleep?" Monica asked.

"Sedated, Agent Scully got concussed when the house you were held in blew up, and Mulder almost died from smoke inhalation from trying to save Scully who was helping to get you out," John said, and he knew that he was twisting the truth, but he wanted her to stop being angry at him and realise all that they had done to try and get her back.

"Oh," Was all she said, and she spotted the cut to Scully's head from where she lay.

"Mmmm...Mulder..."

Monica and John looked over at Scully, she shifted and she woke up, looking around she gave a tiny wave at Monica and John, "Hi," She said, "You okay Monica?" She asked.

"Yeah, fine." Monica answered and Scully frowned at Monica's coldness towards her.

"Where's Mulder?" She asked.

"Behind you," They both answered and Scully turned and found Mulder in the bed next to her. Scully pulled the IV line out of her arm and flung the blankets off herself and got out of bed, moving over to Mulder, she looked at all the machines around her and she was glad that the others couldn't see her face, because she didn't want them to see the tears that formed.

"Oh God, Mulder, what did you do?" She whispered, her fingers in his hair.

Monica was still in a bad mood, "He's still alive you know?" She said and Scully wiped her eyes before turning to face the female agent. '

"What's up with you? You're acting very strange," Scully said, walking towards the foot of Monica's bed and reading the doctors notes.

Monica was about to answer when the door opened and the doctor walked in, "Miss Scully, you shouldn't be out of bed-"

"Too bad," Scully mumbled.

"Miss it would be really help us and you if you went back to your bed-"

"What's her condition?" Scully asked, pointing the clip board of sheets at Monica, who had her arms crossed with a scowl on her face, "She's not normally like this."

The doctor sighed, "Miss Scully-"

"I'm a doctor and a federal Agent," Scully interrupted.

"Doctor Scully," He corrected, "What do you know about Arsenic?"

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><p><em>*Yawn* Oh, what do you know, I made it through another chapter... Are you getting bored? Cos I am... But don't mind im just in a sour mood... which is never any good for my characters, it usually means that one or more of them is going to get hurt or killed.<em>


	18. Arsenic

_Well... I'm back! I've sorted out my laptop/internet issues, and I'm not so bored now but school has a funny way of taking up most of my time though I am determined to get this story finished.  
><em>_If Monica seems rather out of character for the next two chapters or so, that's on purpose and will be explained. _

_But before we move on, a big thanks to So Kiss Me Goodbye who has helped me to continue with this, and to Vita Pulchra Est for sticking with my story! Thanks guys!_

_P.S - If you have read any of my other multi chapter stories, you should know that just when you think it's finishing I pull something..._

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><p>"Arsenic? Well I know quite a bit about it, arsenic is used in the manufacturing off ammunition because it helps to make harder and rounder bullets. Um, It's used on the exterior of wood such as decking and playground materials. I know that the main use of metallic arsenic is in car batteries and for strengthening alloys. But arsenic is most commonly used in numerous pesticides, herbicides and insecticides, though that practise is becoming less common. I also know that arsenic is used as a medical treatment of cancers such as acute promyelocytic leukaemia. I also happen to know most of the symptoms and signs of arsenic poisoning," Scully said, "Stomach ache, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, abnormal heart rhythm, and blood-vessel damage resulting in bruising, sore throat, runny nose, numbness, headaches and vision problems. Aggression or depression. Feeling lightheaded, difficulty speaking, cramps, convulsions, cold or clammy sweats, burning eyes, cough, Meese lines on the fingernails, dehydration and disorientation," Scully finished.<p>

"All of that is true, how much of the patients' chart have you read?"

"Not a lot, I'd just picked it up when you walked in."

"Have a look at your friends hands," The doctor said and Scully curiously walked around to the side of the bed, but Monica still had her arms crossed. Scully couldn't be bothered arguing with her so she just pulled Monica's right hand off her arm and inspected it for a second before Monica angrily pulled hand back, frowning even more she recrossed her arms.

Scully looked back at the reports in the clipboard and then, coming to a conclusion, she looked up at the doctor, "She's been poisoned by arsenic?" Scully asked.

"Yes, we believe she has, what do you know about the treatment of arsenic poisoning?"

"Get fluids into the victim and begin a blood transfusion, and to perform a gastric lavage," Scully said, "Has this been done already?"

"What does that all mean?" John asked.

Scully turned to John, "The main cause of death with arsenic poisoning is usually hypovelmic shock, which occurs when the heart can't get enough blood to the body, although dehydration is also a concern since the victim looses a lot of fluids through either vomiting or diarrhoea-"

"Monica hasn't thrown up-"

"Hah, like you'd know," Monica piped up. All three turned to her.

"Have you?" Scully asked.

Monica gave an annoyed look, "That's none of your business," She said and flicked her hair of her eyes. _Opps, shoulda kept my mouth shut._

"Actually it is my business when it's your life that's on the line," Scully decided that if Monica was going to be bull headed, then so was she.

Monica growled, "What do you think?" She spat.

"I think that based on your aggression, the way your holding your stomach but trying to hide it, the way your eyes aren't properly focused on me, the sluggish way you pulled your hand away from me, the lines on your finger nails, the fact that you're keeping sentences extremely short and the way voice sounds harsher than usual, and not just because your angry, I'd say that yes, you probably have thrown up and not told anybody about what's happening to you Monica and I also agree with the doctor, I believe that you have been poisoned," Scully said, and Monica just tightened her jaw, "And I can see that now you won't say anything because you hate it but you know I'm right," Scully finished and then turned to the doctor, "I take it that you haven't started with a course of treatment?" Scully asked.

"That is correct."

"Why?"

"We were going to, but he wouldn't let me until we spoke to you," The doctor gestured to John and he gave a guilty smile and waved.

"They said that her condition wasn't life threatening yet so I told them that they weren't to do anything until they spoke to you," John confirmed.

"Okay, start her on a blood transfusion, but ah…."

John couldn't hear what Scully said because she started whispering, but the doctor nodded and then moved to stand beside Monica's bed and he injected something, John had no idea what, into her IV line.

"What is that?" Monica asked, and when she didn't get an answer, "What did you just inject into my IV line? What was that?" Monica demanded, planning on pulling the tubing out of her arm if she didn't get an answer.

The doctor sighed, he hated it when patients where like this, "It's just something to help you with the pain, lie back and try to get some sleep, it will help you." He said and he was surprised when she actually sat back, arms still crossed angrily, but it was a small improvement. The doctor looked over at John, "You'd be best to leave now," He said and John shook his head.

"I want to stay with her," He replied.

"I need to talk to you outside then," He said and John got off the edge of the bed and went outside with the doctor, "I understand that you want to be with her, she's your friend, but we need to give her a blood transfusion to rid the arsenic from her body-"

"I'm fine with blood doctor,"

"That's not the problem, we need to do a procedure in which we have to insert a tube through he nose and stomach and flush out her system with water and saline solution, it will keep any more arsenic from being absorbed into her blood stream and it will help quicken her recovery period. But we can't do this with you here, come back tomorrow," The doctor explained.

John nodded, "Will she feel anything?" He asked.

The doctor gave an all knowing smile, "Take a look for yourself," He said and John turned, Monica was out like a light. John turned back and nodded his head then left the hospital.

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><p><em>Its true that reviews do wonders for a writters motivation, but I realise that people don't want to. But that's okay cos I'll just stick to one shots for a while after this. School...<em>


	19. I'm Back

_Not long left!_

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><p><em>Next Day <em>

John sat on the edge of Monica's bed once more; he moved her hair out of her eyes and tucked it behind her ear, watching her still face. More machines where around and attached to Monica and John had no idea what they did, but they beeped every now and when they did he felt like he should have hit the roof with how high he jumped.

He was feeling lost, he had Monica back, but he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do now, but he was most uncertain about what Monica would say when she woke up.

Scully walked into Monica's room, no longer in a hospital gown because she had checked herself out the day before, "How's she doing?" She asked even though she had already spoken to the doctor and she knew all that she needed to know.

"As far as I understand she's alright, but she hasn't woken up yet… How's Mulder?" John asked more out of courtesy than actual concern.

"I'm still waiting for him to wake up, if he doesn't start breathing on his own…" Scully looked down, hiding the tears that threatened to make their presence known, "It'll kill him if he doesn't start breathing on his own soon," Scully rephrased. John wasn't entirely sure what 'it' was that was going to kill Mulder, but he figured that it had something to do with the multitude of machines that where around Mulder and breathing for him, "He has inhaled too much smoke, and uh… things aren't looking good for him right now," Scully finished.

"He'll come round," John tried to comfort Scully though he really wasn't sure what he was doing, he figured that was Mulder's job, "He's come back from the dead a few times now, he'll come around soon."

Scully nodded her thanks for trying, but being a doctor she knew that the odds weren't good. Scully then left the room.

John turned his attention back to Monica, replaying the events of the past week, and looking at all the cuts and bruises that he could see. The horrid yellow bruise that covered the left side of her face was the worst, he hated to see the cuts to her head and lip, it tore him up that this had happened to her and he vowed that if he ever saw Reed again he wouldn't hesitate to kill him.

John gently lifted Monica's arm to have a closer look at the burns around her wrists and the bruises on her arms and forearms, "Oh god…" He mumbled, his fingers gently traced over some of the bruises. He held her hand in both of his, and rested his head on their hands, "What did he do to you?" He whispered.

"He tortured me," Monica croaked and gripped John's hand tighter and tried to hold back a groan as she opened her eyes and with her free arm tried to sit up more, "Ow, with water," She looked up at John, "My throat hurts." She said, switching between topics.

"Yeah I'm not surprised, they had to do some type of surgery thing where they shoved a tube down your throat and stomach, I'd be surprised if you weren't sore…" Then John really processed what she had said, "With water? How'd he do that?"

"Knocked me out, tied me down, isolated me and continuously dripped water-" Monica interrupted herself by sneezing, "Great, now I have a cold- on my head for hours on end. You be surprised what that does to a person, my shoulder's are still sore from that," Monica said and coughed a few times before John let go of her hand to pour her some water.

He went to give her the water but she ignored it and instead took hold of his face and left John utterly shocked when she kissed him. She rested her head against his, her eyes closed, "I should have done that a long time ago," She said and then opened her eyes to see John's, she pulled her bottom lip between her lip, "Thank you," She whispered.

"Ah, ah, f-for what?"

Monica smiled and then hugged John, and he put his free arm around her back, "For saving my life… yet again," She said and then sat back.

"Ah, well there was never any question in it…" John wasn't sure what to make of the recent turn of events.

"John," Monica had noticed his uncertainty, "It's okay, you can calm down, it was just a kiss,"

John smiled and changed the subject, "How are you feeling?"

"Like hell, just about everything hurts, my back hurts, my throat, my stomach, my arms, wrists, ankles," She winced when she accidently shifted, "Sides, head…the list goes on," She said and rubbed her head, remembering the cut there, "Ah, yeah, that explains why my head hurts. I'd forgotten about that."

"You forgot?"

"Yeah, I forgot, what's so weird about that?"

"I can't say that I have ever heard of someone forgetting that they have a cut on their head."

"Well I lost count a long time ago as to how many times he hit me," Monica added and John looked down.

"Oh," He said, and looked down at his hand that didn't hold the glass of water and then his eyes went wide.

"What? What is it?" She asked and John turned his hand around to show her the blood and then Monica's eye's went wide, "Where did _that _come from?" She asked and John shook his head.

"I don't know," He said and then when Monica leaned forward and took his hand in hers he spotted the blood on the sheets behind her, "Monica?" He questioned.

"Mm?" She asked and looked up.

"Are you okay?" He wanted her to tell him first.

"Me? I'm fine, you're the one with blood on your hands,"

"Yeah, but it's not my blood, Monica it's yours."

"What?" Monica was shocked, mostly because she couldn't feel any pain. She started trying to find the source of the blood but John stopped her, putting the plastic cup down, he gently put his hand on her cheek and she looked up at him.

John showed her the blood and Monica looked over her shoulder and saw the scarlet lines and then tried to look at her back. She could see where it has soaked through the hospital gown and to the bed sheets, and then she looked over at John. She turned away from John so he could see the blood lines clearer.

John put a hand on her shoulder and took a closer look at the pattern in the blood, "These lines look parallel…Monica? What did he do to you?" John asked. There were ties that kept the back of the gown together; between the gaps he could see the markings on her back, "Oh my god…" He whispered.

"What? What is it?" She asked, looking back at him she could see that he'd figured it out.

"Really? A belt? He hit you with his belt?"

His voice was laced with emotion; Monica could clearly pick up on the astonishment, the anger and the pain, all of which he tried to hide, but it was too strong to be hidden.

Monica dropped her head and she wasn't sure whether to lie back and hide the marks, or stay where she was so she could hide from his questions.

"Monica?" John questioned again, wanting an answer.

Monica was feeling uncomfortable, John's tone of voice was taking on the same tone that Reed's had when he wanted to get information from her. She suddenly couldn't get her mind off what had happened, scenes started playing through her head of the fights they'd had.

She didn't hear it when John asked her a question, nor when he got up and moved around the bed to find her knuckles where white from gripping the edge of the bed so hard, "Monica?" He called again, his hands on both her shoulders.

"Hm?" Monica looked up at him and saw the worry on his face. She had no idea what he had asked her but she answered anyway, "Yeah, he did…" She mumbled and then tried to stand up.

"Whoa, easy Monica, don't…" He didn't bother with trying to tell her not to something that she was already doing. Monica wasn't listening anyway, "Monica? Monica sit down."

Monica wasn't listening, she didn't hear him, everything just seemed a blur to her, she was lost in he own mind.

She didn't notice as the machines around her started to move as she tried to get around John, nor did she notice that the machines were beeping widely from the inaccurate readings they were receiving. John had both his hands on her shoulders and he was trying to be as gentle as possible with pushing her back to the bed, but she was fighting him. She forcibly pulled his arms off her shoulders and as she did so she caught sight of the tubes going into her arm and hand. She looked at them like they were alien and then pulled the clear, square tape off her hand and pulled the IV line out of her hand and then proceeded to do the same to her arm but John caught her hands and pulled them away. She wanted to get away but she didn't know where she wanted to go.

"Monica stop!" He called to her, but she just started at him, she could see his lips moving but she couldn't hear what he was saying. She could feel the tears building in her eyes and she knew that she didn't want John to see them. She took a step towards him and hid her face in his shoulder to hide the tears.

He wanted to hold her, he really wanted to hold her now that she's taken refuge in him, but he now knew of the marks on her back and he doesn't want to aggravate them further. He was a little confused with the way she was acting, and the sudden mood swing, but to avoid further injury he very gently held the back of her head.

Monica tried to keep her body from shaking, but it quickly became to much of a task to hold everything in and she caved to it, almost collapsing in John's arms.

John led her back to the bed and sat with her, "Monica, you don't have to hide from me," John said, hoping that Monica would talk to him about what happened instead of hiding and crawling into a shell.

Monica shook her head; she didn't feel that she could face him. _I can't tell him, I can't tell him that I just gave in and gave up, that I was weak and didn't fight back, that I let him do what he did to me…I can't tell him what happened, he doesn't need to know._ Monica decided and then fought the teas away, holding them for when she knew she would be alone and could let it all out.

"I'm sorry John… I-I'm just really confused at the moment, um, how about if you come over to my apartment after I get released from hospital, I uh… I think I just wanna be alone for a while," Monica said.

John was now really confused, by the way she was reaching out for him, but pushing him away at the same time, and he was a little disappointed, but he left as she asked, unaware of how broken she felt, and the emotinal breakdown that he felt behind.

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><p><em>Nearly there... one more to go!<br>Okay, you're going to have to wait a while for the last chapter because I want to work on a better ending... but who know what the powerful force of reviews could do for a writers motivation... truly they mean more just readers realise!_


	20. Home

_Chapter 20 Home_

_Ta da! Last chapter! I've re written it a few times so hopefully you like it!  
>All mistakes are mine as I edit my work own work (most of the time anyway!)<br>Let me know what you think!_

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><p>John had shown up within three minutes of her call and they had talked for hours. John explained about the case and the other seven women, and the struggle to find her with the little that they had while Monica told him about what had happened to her and what Reed had done. Though it sounds simple both found it a lot harder than they'd expected, especially when it came to admitting their feelings, especially to each other. But over all, they were happy that everything was out in the open with no more secrets between them.<p>

"Officers Kane and Wolfe interviewed Reed again and we found out a bit more about him and his motives," John said, sitting n ext to Monica on her couch.

"Mm?" Monica urged on.

"Reed was absolultly torn when his mother died. He thought that she was the best woman in the world, perfect, never harmed anyone, never said a bad word. So when she died two years ago, he felt that he needed that perfection back and since he obviously couldn't have his mother, he went in search of the 'perfect' woman to be his wife. Though his standards of perfection are more suited the idea of a slave. He was after blind obidience, and strict love. His morals and values of life are twisted..."

"I think I figured that part out my self after having to spend a week with him," Monica interupted, "But why did he have to pick women that were the same height, and what was with the hair colour pattern and the ages?" She questioned.

"He said he wanted women of your height because they were same hieght as him - so no good reason really. hair colour; because his mothers' hair changed colour over her years and she died her hair all sorts of colours and that was pattern her hair went in, so another not really reasonable answer. Age; His mother was your age when he was born." John explained.

"What happened to the other seven women?" Monica asked, almost afriad of the answer.

"He kept with his torture theme and stuck them all down in secret underground chambers and gave them enough to stay alive with, but not enough to really live off."

Monica shook her head in disbelief, "Will they be okay?" She asked.

"Yes, they will be, they are all in hopsital together with their families and, they would like to meet with the woman who stood up to him so bodly," John said and Monica looked up in surprise, "You don't have to, only if you want to," he added.

"Yes. Yes I do, I would like to meet them, just not right now, maybe tomorrow?" She suggested nervously.

"Oh naturally, its late, I don't want you going anywhere this late at night." He said and they stared into space for a while.

"Do we have a case?" She asked suddenly.

"Unfortunently he has a brilliant case where he can plead insanity, and there is no way he can lose because he has involentarily been tested and diagnosed at leagally insane... so unfortunetly he will never see the inside of a cell because we can't try him because he is going to be in a mental hospital for the rest of his life... but at least he will be out of your life.."

"Our life... he will be out of our life," She corrected with a soft smile and at his look of confusion she carefully kneeled up on the couch and tenderly kissed his lips. Then he understood, they were moving forward, their relationship had changed and they were moving into a new dimension- together.

Monica sat back and they put their arms around each other, Monica leaned into John and they sat there like that, thinking about anything and everything.

Neither had realised how emotionally draining their evening had been, and so when John looked back over at Monica after a long thoughtful silence, he was surprised to find her asleep with her head on his shoulder. He thought back on all that they had spoken about, and he realized that aside from when she was drugged or unconscious, she really hadn't slept much.

John considered moving and leaving but after everything that had transpired between them, he didn't really want to, though niether had directly said it, they both realised that the feelings they each felt where mutual.

Reluctantly he slowly moved off the couch and went into the kitchen. He poured himself a glass of water and then stood, leaning against the bench, lost in thought about all that Monica had told him. In his mind he could envision Reed hitting Monica with his belt, leaving the nasty, bleeding cuts on her back. He didn't like it at all, it made him cringe.

He remembered thinking that if they found her alive, he would tell her, tell her what she already knew, but wanted to hear from him. But he couldn't do it, he couldn't say it, but he knew that she knew either way.

John was pulled from his thoughts when he heard noises coming from the lounge room. He absently looked up at the clock as he quietly ran back into the lounge, and he was surprised to find that he had been standing there for almost an hour.

He went to Monica, and found her mumbling in her sleep. He sat beside her and very gently held her head in his hands, not wishing to wake her, but to comfort her whilst she slept. But her noises didn't cease, they became more audible and John could make out the words, and it made it heart drop.

"No, no, please don't," Monica's voice was quiet but he could hear her fear and he had no oubt about what her subconscious was torturing her with.

"Monica? Monica wake up, it's just a dream, I'm here, I'm here, it's okay, wake up."

He rubbed his thumb over her cheek, trying to wake her.

Monica jumped, her eyes opened and she was startled to find John so close to her. She wrapped her arms around him imediately and drew in a shaky breath, "I can't get it out of my head," She whispered, holding him tightly.

"Time," He said, "It really does heal all wounds," Monica pulled back, absently rubbing one of the friction burns on her wrist, "No pun intended," He said sincerely when he noticed her actions.

Monica gave him a reassuring smile, his words had given her an idea. She shuffled away from him a bit and pulled her shirt over her head, a brief flash of pain crossed her face as she did so from the streching of the cuts on her back. John was more than a little surprised, but for the first time he could see the bruising on her stomach.

"As far as I remember, he kicked me three times," She pointed to one of the darkest spots, "Here," She pointed to another spot not far from the first, "Here," she pointed to a bruise that was further away from the other two, "And here," She said and then pointed to a few of the small burn marks, "That is where he used his stun gun," She said and then pointed to the one that was most enflamed, "I can't quite remember all the details, but I think that one knocked me out," she said, turning her back to him so he could see the undressed marks that the belt had left, "You know what they were from…" She trailed off and she could feel his fingers lightly trace the lines.

John gently dropped a kiss onto her neck and then moved his lips to her ear to speak to her, "I'm sorry," He said and Monica started to turn back to him, but he stopped her with gentle hands on her shoulders, not wishing for her to feel trapped by him, "For not being their for you, to stop him… to protect you from all this," He said, and she felt something wet land on her.

She turned and was a little shocked as she saw the pain that still lay in his eyes, she wiped the tear track that was left behind, her own eyes shined with unshed tears. She knew that the last time he had felt so strongly about anything was when Luke died. She didn't need him to tell her what he felt and how strongly he felt for her, because she could see it in everything he did for her, and she could tell by the look on his face.

"You're here for me now, that's more than enough," She said and put her arms around him again, "But promise me one thing," She whispered, aware of how close her mouth was to his ear.

"What?"

"Never leave me again, stay with me," She asked, praying that he wouldn't back down now and leave her.

"If you want me," He whispered back, and through the anxious tears that Monica fought to stay unshed she chocked out a laugh.

"I do," She said and pulled back just enough to look into his eyes without having to move from his arms, and just enough to be able start their new life together with a sweetly gentle long lasting kiss, "Stay with me," She whispered again.

"Okay," He whispered back and Monica held him tight.

Her words where whispered because her mouth was next to his ear, "I missed you, you know, you were all I could think about… I prayed that you'd find me… every time, he-" Monica stopped herself, her throat felt dry as she fought to keep her emotions under control, "he, touched me or hit me," She closed her eyes, feeling the tears making there presence, "I just hoped that you'd find me before I did something drastic that would get me killed." Monica finished, not letting go of John as she found an immense comfort in his embrace.

He held her just as tightly, not sure what make of her confession, he knew that he wasn't able to get his mind off Monica on a good day let alone when she was missing, but he wasn't sure if he should say so.

"It's okay John, I know you love me and it's okay cos I love you more than I can bare sometimes," She said and to make it easy for him, she stood up, taking his hand and walking with him to her bedroom. She sat and kicked her shoes off before lying down on her side and John followed.  
>Again, Monica made it easy for him by showing him exactly what she was after. She moved as close as she could to him and taking his hand she placed it around her and then moved her arms around him, her head rested against the pillow and against John's shoulder. Her eyes closed and she gently breathed out a sigh of happiness.<p>

John very gently rubbed her lower back, "This is how life is supposted to be," Monica murmered, already half asleep, but it made John smile, he had finally found what he was looking for.

Love.

But what is love? Love is passion, love is romance, love is something that makes your heart dance, love is friendship, love is trust, love is him and her together, and it's thier promise toether forever. Love is the strongest and gentlest emotion that they both had, and it silently ruled their lives without them realising it and they cherished it, the feeling of being loved.


End file.
